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GILLISS    BROTHERS    »    TURNURE 

ART    AQE    PRESS 

4O0    i    40C    WEST    ItTH  STREET,   N.  Y. 


ipufatox^  Qto^e. 


AT  a  meeting  of  the  Consistory  held  July  9,  1889,  it 
was  announced  that  the  senior  minister,  the  Rev. 
Dr.  Vermilye,  would  complete  in  the  autumn  the 
fiftieth  year  of  his  connection  with  the  Collegiate  Church. 
As  this  was  a  period  of  continuous  ministry  which  had  been 
accomplished  only  once  before  in  our  history,  it  was  deter- 
mined to  hold  a  commemorative  service  in  the  month  of 
October,  at  which  a  proper  expression  of  the  views  of  the 
Consistory  should  be  made,  to  be  accompanied  by  similar 
words  from  representatives  of  the  various  bodies  with  which 
our  senior  minister  had  been  associated.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Chambers  and  Messrs.  Bookstaver,  Locke  and  Brower  were 
appointed  a  committee  to  make  the  necessary  preparations, 
which  they  did  after  communicating  with  the  recipient  of 
the  testimonial.  The  last  Tuesday  in  the  month  was  fixed 
for  the  time,  and  handsomely  engraved  cards  of  invitation 
were  issued  and  widely  distributed. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Consistory  held  October  3d,  a  min- 
ute was  adopted  in  reference  to  the  event,  which  was 
engrossed  in  a  peculiarly  graceful  form,  attested  by  the 
signatures  of  the  ministers,  elders  and  deacons,  and  then 
bound  in  a  style  of  simple  but  costly  elegance.  It  was  put 
in  the  hands  of  Dr.  Vermilye  on  the  evening  of  the  com- 
^    memoration. 

^  There  was  a  very  large  gathering  at  the  Church,  embrac- 

'^     ing  some  of  the  leading  ministers  of  nearly  every  denomina- 
,^     tion   and  a  great   many  prominent  citizens,  not  a  few  of 

C". 

cx: 

c 


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4  PREFATORY   NOTE 

whom  had  been  associated  with  Dr.  Vermilye  in  different 
religious,  charitable  or  literary  institutions.  The  pulpit  was 
occupied  by  the  speakers  of  the  occasion,  and  also  the  Hon. 
John  Jay,  the  Hon.  Seth  Low,  President-elect  of  Columbia 
College,  Mr.  John  A.  King,  President  of  the  New  York  His- 
torical Society  and  the  Rev.  Dr.  H.  Y.  Satterlee,  while  the^^ 
members  of  the  Great  and  Acting  Consistories  were  seated  in 
their  usual  pews  on  either  side  of  the  pulpit.  One  of  our 
leading  religious  journals  *  in  its  graphic  report  of  the  jubi- 
lee thus  spoke : 

"  The  pulpit  was  tastefully  decorated  with  palms  and  chrysanthe- 
mums, and  on  the  communion  table  was  a  large  frame-work  of  white 
chrysanthemums  edged  with  maiden-hair  ferns,  and  on  this  white  back- 
ground in  red  carnations  were  the  dates  1 839-1 889.  The  service  was 
most  impressive  throughout,  and  the  care  which  had  been  bestowed  by 
the  committee  of  arrangements  was  rewarded  in  a  service  of  dignity  and 
beauty,  which  admirably  befitted  the  occasion.  The  music  was  marked 
by  rare  taste,  both  in  the  appropriateness  of  the  selections  and  their  ren- 
dition. The  united  choirs  of  the  Collegiate  Churches  sang  well,  and 
their  part  in  the  services  was  not  marred  by  ostentatious  display." 

Besides  the  floral  decorations  in  front  of  the  pulpit  there 
was  on  a  stand  near  the  desk  a  very  beautiful  basket  of 
flowers,  a  voluntary  offering  from  the  Leake  and  Watts 
Orphan  House. 

*  The  New  York  Observer. 


Benedic  Anima  in  B  flat,        -        -         -        Dudley  Buck 

PRAISE  the  Lord,  O  my  Soul, 
And  all  that  is  within  me  praise  His  holy  name. 
Praise  the  Lord,  O  my  Soul, 

And  forget  not  all  His  benefits. 
Who  forgiveth  all  thy  sins, 

And  healeth  all  thine  infirmities. 
Who  saveth  thy  life  from  destruction. 

And  crowneth  thee  with  mercy  and  loving  kindness. 
O  praise  the  Lord,  ye  angels  of  His, 

Ye  that  excel  in  strength. 
Ye  that  fulfil  His  commandment. 

And  hearken  unto  the  voice  of  His  word. 
O  praise  the  Lord,  all  ye  His  hosts, 

Ye  servants  of  His  that  do  His  pleasure. 
O  speak  good  of  the  Lord,  all  ye  works  of  His, 

In  all  places  of  His  dominion. 
Praise  thou  the  Lord,  O  my  Soul. 

Address  of  Welcome,  The  Rev.  Talbot  W.  Chambers, 
D.D.,  LL.D. 

Prayer,  The  Rev.  James  H.  Mason  Knox,   D.D.,  LL.D., 
President  of  Lafayette  College 

The  Resolutions  of  Consistory  and  Address,  The 
Rev.  Edward  B.  Coe,  D.D. 

The  Response,  The  Rev.  Thomas  E.  Vermilye,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


PlYlil>^ :, '  |Nq.  S'SXi'  *?  Gidribus  things  of  Thee  are  spoken. 

("Austria,")  F.J.  Haydn 


f    <  •  «    <    ' 

c    •         c  o     a 


c    c  «  <  « 

c   c       c  * 

r      c  c  c  c 

C  f 

r  (  o 


'  'fro  BE  SUNG  STANDING) 


GLORIOUS  things  of  thee  are 
spoken, 
Zion,  city  of  our  God  ; 
He  whose  word  cannot  be  broken, 
Formed  thee  for  His  own  abode  : 
On  the  Rock  of  Ages  founded, 

What  can  shake  thy  sure  repose  ? 
With  salvation's  wall  surrounded. 
Thou   mayest  smile  at  all    thy 
foes. 

See,  the  streams  of  living  waters, 
Springing  from  eternal  love. 

Well  supply  thy  sons  and  daugh- 
ters, 
And  all  fear  of  want  remove  : 


Who  can  faint,  while  such  a  river 
Ever  flows  their   thirst  to    as- 
suage ?  •'. 
Grace,  which,  like  the   Lord',  the 
Giver, 
Never  fails  from  age  to  age. 

Round  each  habitation  hovering, 

See  the  cloud  and  fire  appear, 
For  a  glory  and  a  covering, 

Showing  that  the  Lord  is  near  : 
Thus  deriving  from  their  Banner 

Light  by  night,  and  shade  by  day, 
Safe  they  feed  upon  the  manna 

Which    He    gives    them   when 
they  pray. 


Address,  The  Rev.  Morgan  Dix,  S.T.D.,  Rector  of  Trinity- 
Church 

Address,  The  Rev.  Richard  D.  Harlan,  Minister  of  the 
First  Presbyterian  Church 


Magnificat  in  A, 


J.  Stainer 


MY  soul   doth   magnify  the   Lord  and  my  spirit  hath   rejoiced  in 
God  my  Saviour, 
For  He  hath  regarded  the  lowliness  of  His  hand-maiden, 

For  behold,  from  henceforth  all  generations  shall  call  me  blessed, 

For  He  that  is  mighty  hath  magnified  me,  and  holy  is  His  name. 

And  His  mercy  is  on  them  that  fear  Him  throughout  all  generations. 

He  hath  showed  strength  with  His  arm, 

He  hath  scattered  the  proud  in  the  imagination  of  their  hearts. 

He  hath  put  down  the  mighty  from  their  seat  and  hath  exalted  the  hum- 
ble and  meek. 

He  hath  filled  the  hungry  with  good  things, 

And  the  rich  He  hath  sent  empty  away. 

He  remembering  his  mercy  hath  holpen  His  servant  Israel,  as  He  prom- 
ised to  our  forefathers 

Abraham  and  his  seed  forever. 


Address,  The  Hon.  Enoch   L.  Fancher,   President  of  the 
American  Bible  Society 


Address,  Merrill  E.  Gates,  LL.D.,  L.H.D.,  President  of 
Rutgers  College 


DOXOLOGY 

Praise  God,  from  whom  all  blessings  flow  ; 
Praise  Him  all  creatures  here  below; 
Praise  Him  above  ye  heavenly  host ; 
Praise  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost. 


Benediction,        -        -      The  Rev.  Roderick  Terry,  D.D. 


Committee 

The  Rev.  Talbot  W.  Chambers,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

Hon.  Henry  W.  Bookstaver 

Frederick  T.  Locke 

William  L.  Brower 


tU  (^nit\>  Cgoirs  of  t?e  Coffe^iate  Cgurc^ 

Carl  Walter,  Organist  of  Church  at  Fifth  Ave.,  and  Forty-eighth  St. 
H.  G.  Hanchett,  Organist  of  Church  at  Fifth  Ave.,  and  Twenty-ninth  St. 
Louis  C.  Jacoby,  Organist  of  Middle  Church,  Lafayette  Place. 


CotttmtmovaiiH  Mert)ice 


At  eight  o'clock  the  chair  was  taken  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Chambers,  the 
Senior  Acting  Minister,  and  the  Exercises  commenced  with  the 
anthem  Benedic  Anima,  Psahin  CIII.,  in  B  flat,  after  which  the 
chairman  pronounced  the  short  address  of  welcome  that  follows. 

Z^t  (^t>iuss  of  T27efcome+ 

WE  are  gathered  here,  as  the  programme  states,  to 
commemorate  the  completion  of  fifty  years  of 
service  by  the  senior  minister  of  the  Collegiate 
Church.  That  cycle  of  time  is  spoken  of  as  most  impor- 
tant. Mr.  Gladstone  told  Mr.  Depew  last  Summer  that  he 
considered  it  the  most  desirable  half  century  in  which  any 
man  could  live.  He  referred  to  the  progress  which  was 
made  in  Great  Britain  in  the  emancipation  of  the  Roman 
Catholics,  in  the  abolition  of  West  India  slavery,  in  the 
repeal  of  the  corn  laws,  and  in  the  removing  the  restrictions 
upon  suffrage.  Even  so  has  it  been  upon  the  continent  of 
Europe  :  witness  the  unification  of  Italy  and  of  Germany  ; 
the  emancipation  of  the  serfs  in  Russia ;  the  opening  of 
China  and  Japan  to  commercial  intercourse;  the  discovery 
of  the  sources  of  the  Nile  and  the  Congo,  and  the  thorough 
exploration  of  inter-tropical  Africa;  the  accomplishment  of 
the  abolition  of  slavery  throughout  Christendom,  for  the 
last  shackle  has  fallen  from  the  last  slave  in  a  Christian 
land.  Note,  also,  the  extraordinary  advances  of  physical 
science,  much  greater  than  in  any  previous  century,  and  the 
flourishing  literature  of  the  Victorian  period  in  every  depart- 
ment of  human  genius.     So,  too,  the  progress    in  our  own 


lO  COMMEMORATION   OF 

country.  The  annexation  of  Texas  ;  the  war  with  Mexico  ; 
the  acquisition  of  large  territory  on  the  Pacific  ;  the  re- 
moval of  the  Great  American  Desert  which  used  to  figure  on 
our  maps,  and  the  railroads  crossing  the  continent ;  the 
marvellous  development  of  the  States  on  the  Pacific  slope; 
the  war  for  the  Union  and  its  happy  result;  the  amazing 
stimulus  which  it  gave  to  every  form  of  human  effort.  All 
these  things  make  the  half  century  distinct  and  memorable. 

But  our  attention  is  turned  from  this  wide  outlook  upon 
public  affairs  to  a  single  life:  to  fifty  years  in  one  man's 
career.  Serving  in  the  same  church  during  all  that  period  ; 
in  times  of  peace  and  in  times  of  war  ;  meeting  all  the  vi- 
cissitudes of  human  things  ;  maintaining  the  same  character 
without  shadow  of  change. 

I  remember  very  well  dining  with  Dr.  Vermilye  in  his 
house  at  Albany  in  the  month  of  July,  1839,  ^^^  some 
pleasantries  were  passed  across  the  table  respecting  the 
call  which  was  then  in  contemplation.  During  the  whole 
intervening  period  he  has  been  able  to  hold  steadfast  his 
position,  and  to  discharge  all  the  various  duties  which  come 
upon  a  minister  in  a  metropolitan  church,  besides  those  be- 
longing strictly  to  his  own  parish. 

In  the  name  of  the  Consistory  it  is  my  pleasure  and 
province  to  thank  you  for  your  presence,  to  welcome  you 
here,  and  invite  you  to  join  with  us  in  giving  proper  atten- 
tion and  emphasis  to  a  career  so  distinguished.  Many  of 
those  who  were  invited  accepted  the  invitation  and  are 
present.  Others  have  declined  with  regret,  among  whom  I 
may  mention  his  honor,  Hugh  J.  Grant,  Mayor;  Justices 
Bradley  and  Blatchford  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  ;  Rev.  Noah  Porter,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  ex-President  of 
Yale  University ;  Rev.  Josiah  Strong,  Secretary  of  the 
Evangelical  Alliance ;  Alex.  E.  Orr,  President  of  the  New 
York  Produce  Exchange ;  The  Rev.  Drs.  Mabon,  Wood- 
bridge  and  Demarest  of  the  Theological  Seminary  at  New 
Brunswick,  N.  J.;  Right  Rev.  Henry  C.  Potter,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  Bishop  of  the  Diocese  ;  Right  Rev.  Bishop  Bedell ; 
Rev.  John  W.  Brown,  D.D.  ;  Rev.  Wm.  J.  Seabury,  D.D. ; 


FIFTY  years'   service  II 

Rev.  Henry  Mottet,  D.D. ;  Rev.  Cornelius  B.  Smith,  D.D.; 
Rev.  Philip  A.  H.  Brown  ;  Rev.  Wm.  T.  Sabine,  D.D. ;  Rev. 
Geo.  D.  Boardman,  D.D.,  of  Philadelphia;  Rev.  J.  S.  Riggs, 
D.D.,  of  Auburn;  Rev.  J.  M.  Stevenson,  D.D. ;  Rev.  How- 
ard Crosby,  D.D.;  Rev.  J.  M.  Worrall,  D.D.;  Rev.  S.  B. 
Rossiter,  D.D.  ;  Rev.  Wm.  M.  Taylor,  D.D. ;  Rev.  Geo. 
H.  Smyth,  D.D. ;  Rev.  David  Waters,  D.D.,  of  Newark, 
N.  J.  ;  Rev.  Herman  C.  Berg,  of  Brooklyn  ;  Rev.  Livingston 
L.  Taylor,  of  Port  Jervis,  N.  Y. ;  Rev.  F.  N.  Zabriskie,  D.D., 
of  Princeton,  N.  J.;  Rev.  R.  S.  MacArthur,  D.D.;  Rev. 
Robert  Collyer;  Rev.  J.  D.  Wickham,  an  uncle  of  a 
former  mayor  of  this  City,  who  in  his  ninety-third  year 
is  still  vigorous  in  mind  and  body  ;  Stephen  P.  Nash,  Esq. ; 
Prof.  Geo.  L.  Peabody ;  Hon.  Robert  B.  Roosevelt ;  Wm. 
H.Crosby;  Hon.  Abraham  Lansing,  Albany;  A.  L.  Ack- 
erman,  Titusville,  Pa. ;  Ten  Eyck  Sutphen,  of  Brooklyn ; 
Chas.  H.  Booth,  of  Englewood,  N.  J.;  Peter  R.  Warner; 
Allan  C.  Hutton,  of  New  Brunswick,  N.J. 

It  is  proper  on  every  such  occasion  to  invoke  the  divine 
presence  and  blessing,  and  this  will  now  be  done  for  us  by 
the  Rev.  James  H.  Mason  Knox,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President 
of  Lafayette  College,  the  son  of  the  eminent  man  who  was 
the  senior  minister  of  this  church  when  Dr.  Vermilye  was 
called. 


(ptagetH 


ALMIGHTY  and  ever  blessed  God,    Father,  Son  and 
Holy  Ghost,   lift   up   upon  us  thy  countenance  and 
give  us  peace. 
We  come  into  Thy  presence  with   grateful   praise.     We 
give  Thee  most   hearty    thanks  for   the    circumstances  of 
goodness  and  loving  kindness  in   which  we   are  assembled 
this  night  in  the  Sanctuary  of  Thy  house. 

We  remember  the  days  of  old,  and  bless  Thy  name  that 
in  many  generations  Thou  hast  led  this  people  like  a  flock 
by  the  hand  of  men  whom  Thou  hast  counted  faithful  put- 
ting them  into  the  ministry,  and  who  approved  themselves 


12  COMMEMORATION   OF 

as  the  ministers  of  God,  by  pureness,  by  knowledge,  by 
long  suffering,  by  kindness,  by  the  Holy  Ghost,  by  love 
unfeigned,  by  the  Word  of  truth,  by  the  power  of  God :  who 
watched  for  souls  as  they  who  must  give  account,  th^t  mey 
might  do  it  with  joy  and  not  with  grief. 

O  Lord  God  of  Israel,  there  is  no  God  like  Thee  in 
Heaven  above  or  in  Earth  beneath,  who  keepest  covenant 
and  mercy  with  Thy  servants. 

We  lift  up  our  hearts  and  voices  to  Thee  to-night  in 
humble  adoration  and  praise  for  what  our  ears  have  heard, 
and  our  eyes  have  seen,  and  our  souls  have  felt  of  Thy 
great  goodness  to  this  congregation  called  by  Thy  name 
by  the  men  whom  Thou  hast  given  to  it  as  Thy  ambassa- 
dors to  declare  Thy  will.  We  thank  Thee  for  the  grace  of 
which  they  have  been  the  almoners,  for  the  light  and 
peace  and  comfort  of  Thy  word,  which  they  ministered  by 
the  Holy  Ghost  sent  down  from  heaven,  and  for  the  help 
they  gave  to  whatsoever  hastened  the  day  when  He  who 
was  delivered  for  our  offences  and  raised  for  our  justifica- 
tion shall  come  again  without  sin  unto  salvation. 

And,  now,  gracious  God,  God  and  Father  of  our  Lord 
and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  we  thank  Thee  for  Thy  servant, 
our  venerated  father,  whose  long  continuance  in  the  pas- 
torate of  this  church  we  celebrate  to-night ;  for  his  work 
and  labor  of  love  in  the  care  of  souls,  for  his  rightly  divin- 
ing the  Word  of  truth,  for  his  manifestation  of  the  Spirit  of 
Him  who  came  to  seek  that  which  was  lost,  for  his  gentle- 
ness, aptness  to  teach,  and  patience. 

We  bless  Thee  that  in  all  things  he  has  made  full  proof 
of  his  ministiy  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  and  that  now 
that  he  wears  the  hoary  head  as  a  crown  of  glory  because 
found  in  the  way  of  righteousness,  his  eye  is  not  dim  nor  his 
natural  force  abated. 

Thou  art  faithful,  O  our  God,  to  Thy  word  ;  they  that  be 
planted  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  shall  flourish  in  the  courts 
of  our  God.  They  shall  still  bring  forth  fruit  in  old  age  to 
show  that  the  Lord  is  upright.  He  is  our  Rock  and  there  is 
no  unrighteousness  in  Him. 


FIFTY  YEARS'   SERVICE  I3 

With  tender  love  we  commend  our  father  to  Thy  most 
holy  keeping,  for  what  remains  to  him  of  this  mortal  life. 
Thou  hast  been  his  shepherd,  and  h^  has  not  wanted  any 
good  thing.  Thou  hast  made  him  to  lie  down  in  green 
pastures.  Thou  hast  led  him  beside  the  still  waters.  Thou 
hast  anointed  his  head  with  oil.  His  cup  runneth  over. 
Surely  goodness  and  mercy  have  followed  him  all  the  days 
of  his  life,  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord  for- 
ever. He  has  fought  a  good  fight,  he  has  kept  the  faith,  and 
there  is  laid  up  for  him  a  crown  of  righteousness  which  the 
Lord  shall  give  him  in  that  day. 

Till  that  hour  of  his  coronation,  we  entreat  Thee,  good 
Lord,  deal  very  gently  with  him.  Smooth  his  pathway. 
Sustain  his  faltering  steps.  Give  him  abundance  of  Thy 
peace,  and  when  the  last  of  earth  shall  come,  give  him 
to  fall  asleep  in  Jesus  to  awake  in  the  blessedness  of  those 
who  have  turned  many  to  righteousness,  and  who  shall 
shine  as  the  stars  forever  and  ever. 

And  we  entreat  thy  favor.  Almighty  God,  still  to  abide 
with  this  church,  this  branch  so  manifestly  of  thy  planting, 
that  Thou  mayest  be  glorified.  In  the  years  that  are  past, 
Thou  hast  been  with  it  to  make  it  a  power  in  the  earth  for 
the  praise  of  Thy  name.  At  this  time  when  it  is  en- 
gaged in  these  acts  of  piety,  gratitude  and  love,  on 
which  Thou  lookest  so  approvingly,  be  pleased,  O  Lord 
most  merciful,  to  show  thyself  in  the  outpouring  of  Thy 
good  Spirit  on  all  who  are  here  and  all  who  are  represented 
here. 

Arise,  O  Lord,  into  Thy  rest.  Thou  and  the  ark  of  Thy 
Strength.  Let  Thy  priests  be  clothed  with  righteousness 
and  let  Thy  saints  shout  for  joy.  Here  do  Thou  dwell. 
Abundantly  bless  the  provision  of  Thy  house.  Satisfy  Thy 
poor  with  bread. 

And  so  we  pray  for  the  Church  universal.  Grace,  mercy 
and  peace  from  God  our  Father,  and  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  it.  Hasten  the  day,  Lord  God  of  Israel,  the  blessed 
promised  day  when  the  watchmen  on  the  walls  of  Zion 
shall  lift  up  the  voice.     With  the  voice  together  shall  they 


14  COMMEMORATION   OF 

sing,  for  they  shall  see  eye  to  eye,  for  the  Lord  has  brought 
again  Zion.  ^ 

All  we  ask  in  His  name,  and  for  His^ke  who  has  taught 
us  when  we  pray  to  say: 

Our  Father  which  art  in  Heaven,  Hallowed  be 

THY  NAME,  THY  KINGDOM  COME,  THY  WILL  BE  DONE  IN 
EARTH  AS  IT  IS  IN  HEAVEN,  GiVE  US  THIS  DAY  OUR 
DAILY  BREAD,  AND  FORGIVE  US  OUR  TRESPASSES  AS  WE 
FORGIVE  THOSE  WHO  TRESPASS  AGAINST  US,  LEAD  US 
NOT  INTO  TEMPTATION,  BUT  DELIVER  US  FROM  EVIL, 
FOR    THINE    IS    THE     KINGDOM,    THE    POWER     AND    THE 

Glory  for  ever,  Amen. 

The  Chairman  then  said:  An  appropriate  minute  in  reference  to  the 
fifty  years  of  service  of  Dr.  Vermilye,  has  been  prepared  by  the  Con- 
sistory. This  will  now  be  read  in  your  hearing  by  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Coe,  who  will  accompany  it  with  an  address  to  which  Dr.  Vermilye 
himself  will  respond. 

Z^t  (S^tBoMiom  of  ConBi$tox^* 

THE  minute  adopted  by  the  Consistory  of  this  church 
at  their  last  regular  meeting  is  as  follows  : 

"  Reformed  Protestant  Dutch  Church 
Of  the  City  of  New  York. 

In  Consistory,  October  3,  1889 

1.  As  the  Reverend  Thomas  Edward  Vermilye,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  will  conclude  during  the  present  month  the  fiftieth 
year  of  his  service  as  one  of  the  Ministers  of  the  Collegiate 
Church,  the  Consistory  have  much  pleasure  in  expressing  as 
follows  their  sentiments  on  the  interesting  occasion. 

2.  We  devoutly  recognize  the  goodness  of  our  Heaven- 
ly Father  in  preserving  the  life  and  health  of  our  senior 
pastor,  so  that  he  has  accomplished  a  longer  term  of  service 
than  any  of  his  predecessors  save  only  the  Rev.  Gualterus 
DuBois,  whose  ministry  began  in  the  year  1699  and  ended 
with  his  life  in  the  year  1751. 


FIFTY   YEARS     SERVICE  I5 

3.  During  this  long  tract  of  years,  so  eminent  in  science 
and  letters  as  to  be  known  as  the  brilliant  Victorian  period, 
Dr.  Vermilye  was  enabled  to  fulfill  the  functions  of  his 
office,  both  as  preacher  and  pastor,  with  signal  ability  and 
success. 

4.  Being  contemporary  with  eight  colleagues,  three  of 
whom,  the  revered  Knox,  Brownlee  and  DeWitt,  have  gone 
to  their  reward,  he  with  them  has  habitually  maintained  the 
dignity  and  usefulness  of  our  metropolitan  pulpit,  and 
showed  himself  a  workman  that  needeth  not  to  be  ashamed. 

5.  In  the  various  public  institutions  with  which  he  was 
connected,  whether  belonging  to  our  own  denomination  or 
the  church  in  general,  he  was  fitted  to  render,  and  did  ren- 
der, most  efficient  service  as  a  wise  counsellor,  a  faithful 
officer,  and  an  eloquent  advocate. 

6.  Having  been  born  and  brought  up  in  this  City  where 
he  commenced  his  ministry  in  the  year  1826,  though  after- 
wards he  prosecuted  it  for  a  time  in  West  Springfield,  Mass., 
and  again  in  Albany,  and  having  spent  a  half-century  in 
subsequent  labor  here,  he  became  completely  identified 
with  its  interests,  and  was  always  active  and  zealous  in  for- 
warding whatever  contributed  to  its  welfare. 

7.  In  his  private  and  domestic  life,  and  in  intercourse 
with  his  brethren  of  all  branches  of  the  church  catholic,  he 
strikingly  illustrated  the  virtues  to  be  expected  from  his 
Huguenot  descent  and  his  representative  connection  with  an 
ancient  church  of  Holland  origin. 

8.  Although  his  life-time  is  almost  contemporaneous  with 
the  century  now  approaching  its  tenth  decade  of  years,  we 
trust  that  the  same  gracious  Providence  which  has  preserved 
hitherto  the  fulness  of  his  mental  vigor  and  so  large  a  meas- 
ure of  bodily  strength,  will  continue  the  same  gifts  for  years 
to  come. 

9.  In  view  of  all  the  foregoing  the  Consistory  now  ap- 
point the  29th  day  of  the  present  month  for  a  public  service 
to  be  held  in  the  church  on  Fifth  Avenue  and  Forty-eighth 
Street,  at  which  this  minute  shall  be  read,  and  appropriate 
addresses  made  by  representatives  of  sister  churches." 


l6  COMMEMORATION   OF 

Dr.  Coe  :  I  have  now  the  honor  and  pleasure  of  handing 
a  suitably  engrossed  copy  of  this  minute  to  the  Rev.  Dr. 
Vermilye. 

€^t  (^iiviee  of  t^e  (Be)),  ©tr.  Coi* 

THE  pleasant  duty  which  has  been  entrusted  to  me  this 
evening  of  adding  to  the  resolutions  just  read  a 
few  personal  words,  might  perhaps  have  been  more 
appropriately  committed  to  my  senior  colleague,  Dr. 
Chambers.  For  my  personal  acquaintance  with  the  Col- 
legiate Church  and  its  ministers  does  not  go  back  very  far. 
It  covers  only  the  last  ten  years.  Of  the  beginning  of  Dr. 
Vermilye's  ministry  in  this  City  I  cannot  speak  from  my 
own  personal  knowledge,  since  I  was  at  that  time  literally 
less  than  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  for  I  was  not  even 
born.  And  yet  these  last  ten  years  of  delightful  inter- 
course and  association  with  the  dear  and  venerable  gentle- 
man whose  jubilee  we  are  met  to  celebrate  to-night,  have 
been  like  a  perfect  afternoon  in  Summer,  which  in  its  tran- 
quil and  satisfying  beauty  shows  plainly  enough  what  the 
early  morning  must  have  been,  and  what  the  high  and 
brilliant  noon. 

It  is  to  all  of  us,  who  are  variously  related  to  this 
church,  a  matter  of  sincere  rejoicing  and  of  devout  grati- 
tude to  God,  that  He  has  permitted  us  to  see  this  day.  A 
half  century  is  a  long  time,  longer  than  the  majority  of 
human  lives,  much  longer  than  the  active  career  even  of 
most  of  those  who  are  spared  to  a  good  old  age.  And 
yet  in  the  history  of  this  country  it  would  be  possible  to 
gather  together  not  a  few  names  (and  it  would  be  a  cata- 
logue of  noble  and  illustrious  names)  of  men  who  have 
passed  a  half  century  of  years  in  the  active  and  efficient 
ministry  of  the  gospel,  holding  to  the  last  the  same  inspir- 
ing faith  which  animated  them  at  the  beginning,  and  pro- 
claiming it  with  that  broadening  charity  and  that  deepen- 
ing tenderness  and  sympathy  which  are  the  beautiful  fruit 
of  a  long  experience  of  life.    But  a  ministry  of  this  length  in 


FIFTY   YEARS     SERVICE  1 7 

one  church  is  very  rare.  It  is  in  our  days  extremely  in- 
frequent. It  vi^as  not  common  even  in  the  more  sedate  and 
slow-moving  days  of  our  fathers.  The  Dutch  Church 
enjoys  an  excellent  reputation  for  keeping  its  ministers  and 
for  taking  good  care  of  them,  but  of  the  thirty  men  who 
have  held  the  office  of  minister  of  the  Collegiate  Church 
since  it  was  organized  in  July,  1628,  only  one  has  until  now 
occupied  the  position  for  fifty  years — Domine  Du  Bois, 
who  came  to  this  country  from  Holland  in  1699  and  who 
died  in  175 1.  Of  the  others  seven  have  been  in  the  service 
of  this  church  for  forty  years  or  more,  including  three  of 
the  colleagues  of  Dr.  Vermilye,  Dr.  Knox,  Dr.  DeWitt 
and  our  honored  and  beloved  Dr.  Chambers.  And  it  is 
interesting  to  observe  how  few  such  careers,  succeeding  one 
another,  are  needed  to  carry  us  back  to  a  time  which  seems 
very  remote.  Six  years  before  Dr.  Vermilye  was  installed 
in  the  old  Middle  Church  on  Nassau  street,  Dr.  Gerardus 
Kuypers  died.  But  Dr.  Kuypers  was  himself  installed  on 
the  Sunday  following  the  day  on  which  General  Washing- 
ton was  inaugurated  President  of  the  United  States.  Thus 
the  ministries  of  these  two  men,  with  a  gap  of  only  six 
years  between  them,  cover  the  whole  century  of  our  history 
as  an  independent  and  self-governing  nation.  In  1789 
Domine  Ritzema  was  still  living,  having  been  summoned 
from  Holland  in  1744  as  a  colleague  of  Du  Bois,  who  was 
born  in  1666.  It  is  thus  easy  to  believe  that  the  elder  of 
these  two  men  must  often  have  rehearsed  to  his  younger 
associate  his  recollections  of  those  stirring  times,  distant 
from  us  by  two  centuries,  when  the  great  revolution  in 
England  ended  in  the  accession  of  the  Dutch  stadtholder 
to  the  throne,  and  the  liberties  of  both  countries  were 
finally  secured  by  the  third  William  of  Orange.  Measured 
in  this  way,  how  short  time  seems!  And  how  many 
momentous  events  may  be  covered  by  a  single  human  life  ! 

But  it  belongs  to  Dr.  Vermilye  rather  than  to  me  to 
speak  of  the  changes  that  he  has  witnessed.  I  am  rather  to 
say  a  word  of  that  which  has  not  changed  in  all  these  fifty 
years — the  feeling  of  respect  and  confidence  and  affection 


l8  COMMEMORATION    OF 

which  all  who  have  here  been  associated  with  him  have 
cherished  towards  him.  Many  of  them  are  not  here  to  give 
utterance  to  it.  Of  those  who  welcomed  him  at  his  coming, 
but  few  remain ;  most  of  them  are  fallen  asleep.  Of  his 
eight  colleagues  three,  whose  names  are  still  honored  in  all 
this  community,  Knox,  Brownlee  and  DeWitt,  have  gone 
up  to  receive  the  reward  of  their  long  and  eminent  ser- 
vice. The  composition  of  the  consistory  and  the  member- 
ship of  the  church  have  almost  completely  changed  as  the 
years  have  gone  forward.  Instead  of  the  fathers  have  come 
the  children,  and  the  children's  children,  and  many  who 
were  not  "to  the  manner  born"  have  found  in  this  ancient 
church  their  Christian  home.  But  we  who  are  now  here  are 
at  one  with  those  who  have  left  us  in  our  loving  regard  for 
him  whose  completed  half  century  of  labor  we  celebrate  to- 
night. If  we  do  not  ourselves  remember  it,  we  know  very 
well  with  what  grace  and  beauty  of  person  and  manner, 
with  what  charming  melody  and  fervor  of  speech,  with  what 
strength  of  Christian  conviction,  and  what  fire  of  Christian 
enthusiasm  he  came  to  his  work  in  this  city  fifty  years  ago. 
We  know  with  what  fidelity  and  persuasiveness  and  power 
he  has  preached  the  unsearchable  riches  of  Christ,  year 
after  year  and  decade  after  decade,  to  great  congregations 
who  came  to  love  and  honor  him,  while  he  taught  them  to 
love  and  honor  the  Master.  We  know  with  what  unfailing 
courtesy  and  tact,  with  what  tenderness  of  sympathy  and 
wisdom  of  counsel  he  has  mingled  with  those  who  have 
always  welcomed  his  presence  in  their  homes  as  at  once 
their  pastor  and  their  friend.  Many  now  present  will  recall 
the  lofty  and  animated  eloquence  with  which  he  maintained 
the  cause  of  truth  and  righteousness  and  national  honor  in  the 
trying  days  of  the  Civil  War.  And  a  much  larger  number  of 
persons  than  this  church  could  hold  are  conscious  of  their  in- 
debtedness to  him  for  religious  instruction,  consolation  and 
incentive,  while  they  have  felt  that  the  consistent  beauty  of 
his  Christian  life  was  an  alluring  illustration  of  the  gospel 
that  he  preached.  It  has  been  an  honor  and  an  advantage 
to  the  church  of  which  he  has  now  for  many  years  been  the 


^  FIFTY   years'   service  I9 

Senior  Pastor,  that  he  has  held  so  high  a  social  position  in 
this  community  and  has  been  able  and  ready  to  serve  in  the 
administration  of  so  many  important  institutions  of  philan- 
thropy and  of  religion,  some  of  which  are  represented  here 
this  evening,  to  add  their  tribute  of  respect  and  gratitude  to 
ours.     It  is  a  noble  and  useful  career  over  which  he  can  now 
look  back,  with  nothing  in  it  to  be  ashamed  of  or  concealed  ; 
and  we  all — his  colleagues  in  this  ministry,  the  officers  and 
members  of  this   church,  and  those  who  are  more  or  less 
closely  associated   with    us — have   felt  the  unanimous   and 
hearty  desire   to  mark  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  instal- 
lation by  this  service  of  public  recognition  and  regard.     We 
congratulate  him  upon  that  which  is  past, — upon  the  work 
that  he  has  done,  upon  the  well  merited  honors  that  he  has 
already  received.     We  rejoice  that  he  is  with  us  still.      We 
pray  that,  if  the  Master  will,  he  may  yet  tarry  with  us  for 
many  years.       If  we  see  and  hear  him  less  frequently  now 
than  a  few  years  ago  in  our  pulpits,  we  love  to  see  him   in 
our  social  gatherings,  at  our  Sabbath  worship,  in  our  homes 
and  in  his  own.      Whenever  we  are  called  to  bid  farewell  to 
those  whom  God  takes  from  us,  we  feel  that  his  words  of 
consolation  and  hope  have  a  meaning  and  a  power  which 
the    words  of   younger   men  do  not  possess.      And  at  the 
Lord's  Table  we  love  to  see  him  ;  his  presence  there  is  itself 
a  benediction.      To  me  at  least  the  Holy  Sacrament,  as  of- 
ten as  we  observe  it,  seems  to  lack  something  if,  before  we 
rise,  we  do  not  hear  his  voice,  growing   more  tender  and 
more  impressive  every  year,  speaking  to  us  of  the  love  of 
the  dear  Lord,  whom  he  has  served  so  long,  and  who  is  then 
so  near  to  him  and  to  us  all.       At  such  times  I  have  often 
thought,  as  many  others,  no  doubt,  have  also  thought,  of  the 
familiar  story  of  the  Apostle  John,  that  in  his  old  age,  when 
his  active  ministry  was  ended,  he  used  still  to  meet  at  times 
with  the  church  at  Ephesus,   and   with   the   light   of   the 
Master's    glory   shining    on    his     face,   to    say    to    those 
who  were  gathered  around  him,  "  Little  children,  love  one 
another." 

Dear  friend  and  father,  may  God  keep  you  in  His  love, 


20  49  COMMEMORATION    OF 

and  fulfill  to  you  the  promise  that  at  evening  time  there 
shall  be  light — within,  around,  and  above  ! 

I  SHOULD  be  strangely  lacking  in  sensibility,  hardly 
fit  to  be  called  human,  if  I  could  appear  in  this  place 
on  this  occasion,  without  profound  emotion.  You  as- 
semble to  offer  your  congratulations  on  the  close  of  a  pas- 
torate of  fifty  years.  First,  my  grateful  acknowledgments 
I  humbly  offer  to  the  Angel  of  the  Covenant  that  has  led 
me  and  fed  me  all  my  life  long.  Nor  can  I,  nor  would  I  re- 
frain from  returning  to  the  Consistory,  the  people  of  the 
congregation,  and  to  you  revered  brethren  and  friends,  my 
heartfelt  thanks  for  this  memorable  token  of  kind  regard. 

I  feel  that  I  have  come  to  a  very  solemn  point  in  my 
life's  history.  The  current  of  thought  turns  back,  not 
through  half  a  century  of  years  only  in  this  church,  but  al- 
most to  the  hour  of  my  earliest  consciousness  in  this  my  na- 
tive city ; — then  of  small  limits,  now  arraying  itself  in 
grandeur,  spreading  onward  and  outward,  and  destined,  as 
it  seems,  to  become  the  metropolis  of  the  world.  The  past 
is  again  present.  Objects  then  familiar,  but  now  obliter- 
ated ;  forms  and  faces  of  relatives  and  friends  long  since 
gone,  seem  to  present  themselves  as  living  realities  ;  echoes 
rise  from  the  deep  solitude  of  bygone  days ;  voices  seem  to 
come  up  all  around  me,  saying  in  tones  of  solemn  admoni- 
tion "The  place  whereon  thou  standest  is  holy  ground." 
The  years  have  been  very  swift — startling  in  the  number 
they  have  so  noiselessly  multiplied — and  age  has  come,  apt 
to  be  burdened  with  bodily  infirmities,  to  feel  abatement  of 
mental  vigor,  reverses  and  bereavements,  premonitions  of 
final  departure.  Yet  is  it  not  always  nor  necessarily  dark 
and  joyless.  Often  "  at  eventide  it  is  light."  A  Christian 
spirit  softened  by  time  and  grace  may  learn  to  bow  with 


FIFTY   year's   service  21 

sweet  submission  to  a  Father's  will ;  leans  lovingly  on  Jesus' 
bosom  ;  stretches  out  the  wings  of  faith  and  hope,  essaying 
to  rise  to  better  regions  and  a  holier  communion.  And  thus 
even  the  hoary  head  may  become  a  crown  of  glory. 

At  the  time  when  I  came  to  the  Collegiate  Church  in 
1839  the  Old  Middle,  an  antique  structure,  afterwards  the 
United  States  Post  Oflfice,  on  Cedar,  Nassau,  and  Liberty 
streets ;  the  North,  a  fine  edifice  on  the  corner  of  Fulton 
and  William  Streets;  and  the  new  granite  church  at  the 
corner  of  Fourth  Street  and  Lafayette  Place,  were  the 
places  of  worship.  The  Consistory  Building  was  at  the  cor- 
ner of  Nassau  and  Ann  Streets.  A  large  portion  of  the 
people  lived  below  Chambers  Street  and  the  down  town 
churches  had  yet  large  congregations,  but  the  flow  had 
commenced  up  town  which  made  the  new  church  and  an- 
other minister  necessary  when  I  was  called  to  the  co-pas- 
torate. It  is  a  singular  historical  memory  that  when  it  was 
proposed  to  build  on  Lafayette  Place  the  project  was  met 
in  the  Consistory  with  strenuous  opposition,  it  being  said 
that  a  congregation  could  never  be  gathered  in  that  far-off 
region.  The  same  thing  was  true,  as  I  had  good  reason  to 
know,  when  the  Twenty-ninth  Street,  and  in  a  measure, 
when  the  Forty-eighth  Street  church  was  built.  So  little 
did  old  New  Yorkers  realize  the  prospective  growth  of  our 
city  and  the  necessity  of  church  extension.  But  indeed, 
what  prophetic  eye  could  have  foreseen  the  vast  proportions 
it  has  attained  in  fifty  years,  or  the  still  greater  it  shall  at- 
tain in  the  fifty  years  to  come.  At  once,  however,  the  new 
Fourth  Street  church  was  filled,  and  soon  it  was  found  nec- 
essary to  open  a  small  edifice  on  Ninth  Street,  between 
Broadway  and  the  Bowery,  as  a  chapel  of  ease. 

The  Pastors  in  1839  were  the  Rev.  Drs.  Knox,  Brownlee, 
and  De  Witt  ;  very  diverse  in  their  gifts,  but  all  able  and 
faithful  men.  After  Dr.  Brownlee  was  laid  aside  by  paraly- 
sis, the  Rev.  Dr.  Chambers  was  called,  and  subsequently 
the  Rev.  Drs.  Joseph  T.  Duryea,  James  M.  Ludlow,  and 
William  Ormiston  have  held  the  pastorate  but  have  retired 
to  other  spheres  of  labor.     I  was  the  last  minister  installed 


22  COMMEMORATION    OF 

in  the  venerable  Old  Middle  church.  And  it  is  worthy  of 
remark  that  the  church  edifices  existing  when  I  became 
pastor  have  all  disappeared  before  the  advance  of  trade. 
The  ancient  order  of  rotation  in  ministerial  services  has  also 
given  place  within  the  last  twenty  years  to  separate  pastor- 
ates, the  option  having  been  reserved  to  me  of  preaching  in 
the  churches  in  rotation  on  Sabbath  mornings. 

A  pastorate  of  fifty  years  in  the  same  church,  to  which 
may  be  added  in  my  case  pleasant  and  I  hope  not  unprofit- 
able ministries  in  Vandewater  Street  in  this  city ;  in  West 
Springfield,  Mass.,  and  in  the  ancient  Dutch  church  in  Al- 
bany, making  about  sixty-three  years  of  ministerial  service; 
■—such  a  pastorate  although  unusual  in  these  days  of  mi- 
gratory pastorates,  in  general  must  present  much  uniform- 
ity with  little  to  gratify  curiosity.  Yet  the  pastor's  diary, 
prepared  in  a  right  spirit,  might  be  very  instructive.  Minis- 
ters are  often  brought  into  the  inmost  scenes  of  individual 
and  domestic  life  ;  into  connection  with  strange  and  some- 
times beautiful  developments  of  character  ;  with  exciting 
experiences  religious  and  irreligious  ;  with  the  doubts  and 
the  ecstacies,  the  hopes  and  the  dreads  which  agitate  the 
human  heart.  And  to  be  made,  in  a  sense,  the  physician  of 
souls  is  an  awful  trust.  Surely  he  should  aim  to  be  refined 
in  feeling,  gentle  in  speech,  not  brusque  nor  rough  in  man- 
ners, and  earnest  in  piety.  Of  his  public  functions  in  an  es- 
tablished charge,  pastoral  visitation  is  prominent;  mainly 
valuable,  however,  as  it  must  be,  conducted  in  a  city  like 
this,  in  bringing  pastor  and  people  into  kindly  acquaintance 
and  so  preparing  them  for  mutual  benefit ;  him  to  know 
their  state  and  wants,  them  to  receive  his  message  with 
profit. 

With  the  great  increase  of  population,  also,  within  half  a 
century  great  changes  have  taken  place  in  the  line  of  Christ- 
ian work.  It  is  a  day  of  action.  Benevolent  societies  are 
to  be  conducted  both  in  and  out  of  the  church  ;  the  poor  to 
be  looked  after  tenderly,  visited  and  ministered  unto,  and  a 
Christian  sagacity  used  with  rich  and  poor  to  "  compel  them 
to  come  in."     The  larger  part   of  these  manifold  agencies 


FIFTY   YEARS    SERVICE  2$ 

has  grown  up  within  fifty  years,  and  all  rely  upon  the  pastor 
for  sympathy  and  active  co-operation. 

But  the  great  work  of  the  pastor  is  to  be  a  teacher 
"  holding  forth  the  word  of  life."  Go,  preach  the  gos- 
pel, teaching  all  nations,  is  His  divine  commission.  "  Preach 
the  word,"  saith  Paul.  "  I  am  set,"  saith  he  "for  the  de- 
fence of  the  gospel."  By  this  must  be  meant  a  definite 
system  of  truth,  entirely  distinct  from  the  prevailing  philos- 
ophies and  religions.  It  is  styled  "  the  faith  "  ;  things  to  be 
believed.  The  church  of  God  has  ever  had  its  fixed  faith. 
It  has  ever  maintained  that  "holy  men  of  God  spake  as 
they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost."  What  they  gave 
forth  was  therefore,  in  the  strictest  sense,  God's  word. 
They  were  instructed  what  to  say  and  how  to  say  it.  The 
scriptures  indited  by  them  were  divinely  inspired  and  there- 
fore of  absolute  authority,  all-sufificient  for  life  and  doctrine. 
Less  than  infallible  in  the  whole  and  in  its  parts,  it  ceases 
to  be  God's  word.  The  specific  teachings  of  these  scrip- 
tures have  from  time  to  time  been  formulated  into  conven- 
ient creeds,  such  as  the  so-called  Apostles'  Creed,  and  the 
creeds  of  the  Reformed  Churches  ;  the  Heidelberg  Cate- 
chism, the  Thirty-nine  Articles  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal 
Church,  the  Westminster  Catechism  and  Confession,  and 
other  Reformed  symbols.  These  all  contain  one  system  ; 
speak  substantially  one  language ;  embody  the  cardinal 
principles  of  the  New  Testament,  and  thus  express  "  the 
faith  delivered  to  the  saints."  Upon  the  doctrines  thus  set 
forth  the  life  of  the  Church  has  hung  in  all  ages  ;  on  them  its 
influence  and  glory  depend.  As  they  are  kept  in  the  popular 
mind  and  affirmed  or  weakened  by  the  ministry,  has  the 
Church  put  on  her  beautiful  garments,  or  walked  in  sack- 
cloth and  depression.  Moreover  it  should  be  particularly 
noted  that  these  consentient  creeds,  formed  at  different 
times,  in  different  countries,  by  men  of  very  diverse  culture, 
must  be  taken  as  so  many  independent  testimonies  to  the 
divine  nature  of  the  communications  and  of  the  doctrines 
which  the  Bible  certainly  teaches.  The  least  that  can  be 
affirmed  is  that  all  these  learned  and  devout  men  in  con- 


24  j^  COMMEMORATION    OF 

scientious  search  of  truth,  in  such  varying  conditions,  have 
ever  found  the  Bible  to  be  such  as  their  creeds  declare.  Yet 
this  faith  of  the  Church  has  been  received  with  no  easy  cre- 
dulity, but  in  all  times  has  encountered  the  keenest  exam- 
ination and  the  most  hostile  criticism.  Nor  this  from  the 
ignorant  nor  profane  alone,  but  notably  from  science  and 
learning  without,  and  from  speculation  within  its  own 
bosom. 

I  have  lately  re-read  Mosheim's  Ecclesiastical  History, 
valuable  for  its  arrangement  and  statement  of  facts  and 
opinions,  and  particularly  useful  for  its  chapters  on  the 
heresies  and  divisions  in  each  century.  Never  has  the  faith 
seemed  at  rest.  No  learning  or  ingenuity,  no  objection 
that  imagination  could  invent  to  modify  or  overthrow  the 
word  and  its  doctrines,  has  been  wanting ;  objectors  have 
reviled  ;  sects  have  arisen  ;  but  here  it  stands  stable  as  the 
pillared  firmament.  The  Ark  has  outridden  every  storm. 
Amidst  the  precious  relics  of  the  ancient  world,  the  wealth 
of  poetry,  eloquence,  art,  no  gift  so  precious  as  our  Bible 
has  come  down  the  stream  of  time.  Paul  met  the  "  opposi- 
tions of  science  falsely  so-called,"  but  before  the  simple 
word  preached,  the  subtleties  of  the  Greek  philosophies 
faded  away  and  believers  were  multiplied.  No  learning  or 
sagacity  of  modern  times  have  excelled  the  attacks  of  Por- 
phyry and  Celsus,  but  they  have  been  long  forgotten,  while 
the  Bible  and  the  old  faith  of  our  creeds  lives  on  and 
spreads.  Who  now  reads  the  deistical  writers  of  the  last 
century,  able  beyond  example  as  they  were  and  determined 
to  banish  the  blessed  Gospel  from  the  earth.  But  the  word 
of  the  Lord  endureth.  Nor  was  it  ever  more  manifest  than 
at  this  hour  that  it  has  within  it  "  the  power  of  an 
endless  life."  The  impelling  motive  of  most  of  these 
opponents  is  pride  of  intellect  or  hatred  of  what  to 
us  appears  to  be  as  much  a  dictate  of  reason  as  a 
doctrine  of  revelation,  to  wit,  that  the  Supreme  Ruler 
must  be  held  "to  do  his  pleasure  in  the  armies  of  heaven 
and  among  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth."  That  by  a  won- 
derful combination  "justice  and  judgment    are    the   habi- 


FIFTY   YEARS'  SERVICE  2$ 

tation  of  his  throne,  while  mercy  and  truth  go  before  his 
face."  Hence  the  awful  doctrine  of  absolute  sovereignty, 
wherever  it  appears,  is  resented  in  seeming  forgetfulness 
that  there  are  awful  facts  in  God's  daily  providence  which 
are  seen  and  felt,  and  can  be  neither  disputed  nor  resisted. 
The  secret  spirit  of  much  objection  and  of  some  sects,  is 
undoubtedly  a  wish  to  modify  or  exclude  this  principle  in 
its  far-reaching  relations.  Yet  glorious  sovereignty  and 
boundless  love  go  hand  in  hand  in  the  government  of  the 
world,  and  in  the  scheme  of  gospel  truth. 

The  last  fifty  years,  and  indeed  the  last  century,  have 
been  marked  with  uncommon  mental  activity  and  boldness  in 
various  departments  of  learning.  New  discoveries  in  science 
as  is  claimed,  and  new  theories  have  as  usual  been  brought 
into  sharp  antagonism  with  the  Bible  and  the  truths  which 
shine  on  its  pages  as  if  written  with  a  sunbeam.  Perhaps 
the  most  formidable  attack  upon  our  faith  ever  made  from 
this  quarter  is  now  in  progress.  But  the  bearing  of  the  al- 
leged facts  and  their  relations  to  revealed  truth  are  yet 
under  discussion,  and  in  the  contest  unbelief  may  not  yet 
exult.  When  we  consider  the  past  history  of  mental  and 
even  of  physical  science  :  the  limits  of  human  reason  ;  the 
natural  ardor  and  positiveness  of  inventors  and  discoverers 
how  often  what  was  yesterday  received  as  demonstration  is 
modified  or  rejected  to-day ;  and  how  apparently  irreconcil- 
able diversities  have  by  fuller  knowledge  been  harmonized  ; 
modesty  and  reserve  are  seen  to  be  a  prime  requirement  in 
all  human  investigations.  Nor  do  we  doubt,  since  all  truth 
is  one,  that  what  is  proved  true  in  the  claims  of  modern 
science  will  in  the  end  be  found  in  full  accord  with  the  prin- 
ciples the  Christian  Church  has  always  gathered  from  Holy 
Writ.  The  consonance  of  its  doctrines  with  the  wants  of 
the  soul,  and  its  entire  history,  forbid  us  to  fear. 

Within  the  Church,  also,  various  imagined  improvements 
have  appeared.  Of  this  class  are  the  Future  Probation 
theory  and  the  Higher  Criticism.  These  are  not  new.  For 
a  large  part  they  are  pure  speculation ;  and  a  logical  mind 
will  perceive  that   they  are  on  lines  of  thought  which,  if 


26  S  COMMEMORATION    OF 

severely  pursued,  will  lead  into  most  objectionable  posi- 
tions ; — the  former  into  Universalism,  and  the  latter  even 
into  simple  Deism. 

Another  insidious  opponent  to  the  received  faith  of  the 
Church,  and  a  boasted  substitute  for  it,  appears  in  a  popu- 
lar humanitarianism.  Law  and  sin ;  ruin  in  Adam  and 
recovery  only  by  the  atonement  of  Jesus  the  crucified;  the 
soul-renewing  Spirit  and  the  eternal  Judgment  are  themes 
little  regarded ; — indeed,  in  reality  disrelished.  And  Paul's 
expositions  of  the  Christian  verities  are  unsavory.  Man 
and  his  relations  to  this  life  are  mainly  considered  ;  the  vir- 
tuous play  of  the  amiable  instincts  of  nature  and  personal 
well-being  here,  will  be  a  sure  passport  to  a  divine  reward 
hereafter.  This  scheme  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  been 
congested  into  a  system  or  a  separate  sect,  but  is  diffused 
through  several,  where  it  finds  a  congenial  home.  And  yet 
mere  philanthropy,  though  admirable  in  its  sphere,  is  in  no 
proper  sense  a  religion, — a  binding  the  soul  back  to  God. 
In  truth,  if  it  rise  not  from  the  sure  foundation  Jesus  Christ, 
it  is  little  better  than  disguised  paganism.  And  pagan 
morality,  however  refined,  however  exquisitely  set  forth  in 
forms  of  beautiful  speech,  never  had  the  power  to  curb  and 
purge  the  wild  passions  of  the  soul  or  to  renovate  the 
domestic  and  social  conditions,  and  was  a  failure  even  for 
this  world.  Seneca's  morals,  written  amidst  the  highest  re- 
finements of  the  highest  classes  in  imperial  Rome,  but  in 
the  most  corrupt  state  of  society  the  civilized  world  proba- 
bly ever  saw,  had  no  influence  upon  his  age,  scarcely  upon 
himself.  Man  is  immortal !  Man  is  accountable  !  And  no 
scheme  of  mere  moral  teaching  has  ever  yet  had  power  to 
invigorate  conscience  to  its  awful  functions  and  steady  the 
faltering  footsteps  of  earth's  wayward  pilgrims,  or  answer 
the  fearful  question  "  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the 
Lord."  The  blood  of  Christ  alone  can  give  light,  peace, 
assurance,  "  the  joy  unspeakable  and  full  of  glory."  Not 
human  virtue  but  a  divine  daysman  must  be  its  strength. 
And  this  modern  philanthropy  for  religion,  without  convic- 
tion of  sin,  without  spiritual  conversion,  without  an  atoning 


FIFTY   YEARS'   SERVICE  27 

Saviour,  is  as  cold  and  deathlike    as  the  vicinage  of   the 
grave. 

These  are  some  of  the  existing  issues  and  thus  through- 
out her  history  the  Church  and  her  faith,  according  to 
prediction,  have  been  in  constant  conflict  yet  evermore 
victorious.  Her  ministry  still  proclaims  those  pregnant 
truths  which  have  ever  given  peace  and  hope  to  men ; 
which  gave  new  life  to  the  world  amidst  the  ruins  of  falling 
empire  and  an  effete  idolatry;  and  her  bow  still  abides  in 
strength.  We  have  heard  much  of  "  Progressive  Christian- 
ity "  and  the  "  Church  of  the  future."  That  there  may  be 
variations  of  form,  and  that  there  will  be  a  fresh  outpouring 
of  the  Spirit,  is  to  be  expected.  But  if  it  is  intended  that 
men  shall  ever  get  beyond  the  Bible  or  its  peculiar  doctrines 
as  summarized  in  our  catechisms  and  creeds ;  shall  reach 
something  higher,  holier,  more  sublime  ; — it  is  a  pretense 
fraudulent  and  delusive.  These  truths  were  given  not  for 
a  race  or  an  age,  but  for  all  times  and  all  people.  Their 
message  is  to  man;  the  same  to  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile, 
the  learned  and  the  savage.  The  old  teachings  contained 
within  the  covers  of  our  Bible  and  the  ordinances  of  the 
New  Testament  Church  are  sufficient  and  perpetual. 

The  earth  moves,  indeed  ;  it  is  in  one  constant  flow,  but 
there  are  things  upon  it  that  never  change.  The  grand 
Pyramid  has  loomed  upon  the  desert  for  ages  past  and  will 
continue  until  the  final  consummation.  So  the  Church 
which  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth  is  monumental 
and  imperishable.  The  sacred  Book  it  is  commissioned  to 
guard  and  diffuse  to  all  nations  ;  its  ministry  which  has  lived 
in  succession  hitherto  and  with  which  the  Saviour  has 
promised  to  abide  until  the  end  of  the  world  ;  its  appointed 
ordinances  ; — these  shall  never  be  lost  and  can  never  change. 
They  are  God's  ordained  means  to  gather  his  elect  from  the 
ruins  of  the  fall,  and  they  will  stand  while  there  is  a  sinner 
to  be  saved  by  grace  or  a  saint  to  be  sanctified  and  speeded 
on  his  way ;  while  the  earth  remaineth  and  until  the  light 
that  burns  in  yonder  sky  goes  out  and  ancient  darkness 
comes   again.     Nor  then   shall   his   glorious   Gospel   have 


28  ^  COMMEMORATION    OF 

failed.  But  the  Church  in  the  wilderness  shall  pass  to  the 
Church  of  the  first-born  in  heaven  ;  and  to  the  redeemed 
throng  of  "  numbers  without  number,"  justified  in  the  name 
of  the  Lord  Jesus  and  by  the  Spirit  of  our  God,  shall  be 
thrown  wide  the  celestial  gates  "on  golden  hinges  turning." 
These  will  be  the  trophies  of  divine  wisdom  and  power  and 
love  for  which  the  earth  was  upreared  and  rolled  out  its 
ages ;  in  which  the  great  problems  of  moral  agency  and 
predetermination,  of  providence,  of  sin,  and  of  redemption, 
were  wrought  out  and  forever  solved,  and  sovereign  wis- 
dom and  love  have  triumphed.  "  And  the  ransomed  of  the 
Lord  shall  return  and  come  to  Zion  with  songs  and  ever- 
lasting joy  upon  their  heads;  they  shall  obtain  joy  and 
gladness,  and  sorrow  and  sighing  shall  flee  away." 

That  we  may  all  come  to  that  blissful  re-union  is  the 
Pastor's  fervent  prayer. 

At  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Vermilye's  remarks  all  joined  in  the  singing 
of  Hymn  No,  557,  "  Glorious  things  of  Thee  are  Spoken, " 

("  Austria  ")  J.  F.  Haydn. 

After  which  the  chairman  said : — "  When  the  Rev.  Dr.  Morgan  Dix  was 
invited  to  be  present  and  speak  on  this  occasion,  he  consented  in  a 
very  cordial  and  graceful  letter.  The  reason  why  he  is  not  here 
will  appear  by  the  following  letter,  which  I  will  read  : —  " 

Trinity  Rectory,  October  29th,  1889. 

"  Dear  Dr.  Chambers  : — I  regret  very  sincerely  that  I 
cannot  be  with  you  this  evening,  but  I  am  suffering  from  a 
heavy  cold,  and  my  physician  forbids  me  to  go  out  at 
night. 

"  When  you  invited  me  to  the  Commemorative  Service 
about  to  be  held,  you  asked  me  to  say  a  few  words  on  the 
occasion.  If  I  had  been  present  I  should  have  complied 
literally  with  your  request  ;  as  it  is,  I  shall  write  what  I  in- 
tended to  say. 

"  It  gives  me  great  pleasure  to  add  my  voice  to  those 
which  now  do  honour  to  the  venerable  and  eminent  Senior 
Minister  of  the  Reformed  Protestant  Dutch  Church  in  the 
City  of  New  York.      Dr.  Vermilye  and  I  have   been  for 


FIFTY   YEARS'   SERVICE  29 

nearly  thirty  years  co-workers  in  the  Board  of  Trustees  of 
the  Leake  and  Watts  Orphan  House,  It  is  one  of  those 
Boards,  which  are  composed  of  ex-ofificio  members,  and  it 
has  the  happy  effect  of  bringing  together  clergymen  who 
otherwise  might  not  have  had  an  opportunity  of  working  side 
by  side.  As  a  member  of  these  Boards,  I  have  had  the  ad- 
vantage of  knowing  many  eminent  men  ;  Dr.  Phillips,  of 
the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  Dr.  Paxton,  his  successor, 
and  my  young  friend  and  brother,  Mr.  Harlan.  Thus  also 
I  became  intimately  acquainted  with  that  most  excellent 
man,  the  Rev.  Dr.  De  Witt,  whom  to  know  was  to  love ; 
and  thus  were  Dr.  Vermilye  and  I  brought  together. 

"  I  have  observed  him  attentively  for  many  years,  and 
have  come  to  respect,  to  honour,  to  admire,  and  to  hold  him 
in  affectionate  regard.  He  seems  to  me  to  fill  the  measure 
of  a  good  man  ;  a  simple-hearted  and  sincere  Christian,  al- 
ways deeply  interested  in  his  work ;  ever  courteous  and  re- 
fined ;  bright,  cheerful,  cordial,  scholarly,  able  in  speech, 
adorning  his  conspicuous  position.  His  interest  in  the  lit- 
tle orphan  children  has  been  constant  and  touching,  as  be- 
came a  faithful  guardian  of  their  interests. 

"  It  gives  me  pleasure  to  think  how  often  he  has  ex- 
pressed his  admiration  for  that  branch  of  the  church  to 
which  I  belong.  Again  and  again  have  I  seen  him  in  my 
parish  church  on  Ascension  Day  ;  indeed  we  used  to  look 
for  him  there  as  a  matter  of  course.  You  may,  perhaps,  re- 
member what  the  good  Doctor  said  at  the  Quarter-Millennial 
Anniversary  in  1878.  He  praised  us  highly  ;  but  went  on 
to  add,  with  a  certain  quiet  humor,  that,  in  his  opinion,  the 
reason  why  the  Episcopal  Church  is  so  flourishing  and 
prosperous,  is  this  ;  that  it  has  absorbed  so  many  of  the 
Dutch  Reformed  communion.  Let  me  retort  on  my  friend, 
and  add  that,  if  we  had  known  each  other  earlier,  and  if  he  had 
been  then  in  his  present  favorable  disposition  toward  us,  I 
should  have  endeavoured  to  persuade  him  to  follow  a  good 
example  and  to  reinforce  and  aid  us  still  further  in  his  own 
person. 

"  But  I  do  not  grudge  you  this  great  ornament  of  your 


30  COMMEMORATION    OF 

body ;  on  the  contrary,  I  congratulate  you  on  the  lustre 
which  he  has  cast  on  you,  and  on  the  honour  which  has 
come  to  you  from  that  admirable  character,  that  spotless 
name,  and  the  record  of  half  a  century  of  true  and  laudable 
service  now  happily  complete. 

"  As  for  himself,  I  have  only  this  to  add.  The  time  is 
short,  the  hour  cannot  be  far  distant  at  which  the  earthly 
tie  must  be  broken,  and  he  shall  see  man  no  more  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  world.  Let  not  this  be  called  a  falling  of 
the  shadows,  an  oncoming  of  nocturnal  stillness.  Nay,  but 
these  last  days  of  the  earthly  life  of  our  venerabie  and  be- 
loved friend  are  the  beginning  of  the  dawn,  the  approach  of 
the  day.  For  him  it  is  the  night  which  is  far  spent,  the  day 
which  is  at  hand.  For  him  the  skies  are  brightening  with 
the  approach  of  the  morning  of  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
God  bless  him  and  keep  him,  and  make  him  to  be  numbered 
with  the  saints  in  glory  everlasting !  And  may  we  be 
strengthened  by  his  example,  and,  like  him,  be  enabled  to 
stand  firm  in  our  lot  to  the  end  of  the  days  and  to  finish 
our  course  with  joy.     I  remain,  My  dear  Doctor, 

"  Very  truly  yours, 
"  Morgan  Dix." 

To  this  may  be  added  a  letter  from  the  Right  Reverend  Henry  C. 
Potter,  who,  in  Hke  manner,  had  courteously  and  with  a  great 
manifestation  of  interest,  welcomed  the  invitation  which  was  given 
him  to  attend. 

"  Diocesan  House,  29  Lafayette  Place. 

"New  York,  Oct.  28th,  1889. 

•'  My  Dear  Dr.  Chambers  : — When  I  wrote  you  last,  I 
saw  no  obstacle  that  I  could  not  remove,  to  my  presence 
with  you  to-morrow  evening.  But  an  imperative  engage- 
ment, which  I  cannot  postpone,  takes  me  out  of  town,  and 
thus  deprives  me  of  what  would  have  been  a  very  great 
pleasure. 

"  It  is  my  honorable  privilege  to  serve  with  Dr.  Vermilye, 
as  his  junior,  in  the  joint  Chaplaincy  of  the  St.  Nicholas 
Society,  and  it  has  been  my  pride  for  many  years  to  reckon 


FIFTY   YEARS'   SERVICE  31 

him  as  among  my  most  dear  and  honored  friends,  as  he  was 
that  of  my  venerable  predecessor  in  the  Episcopate  of  this 
Diocese.  I  well  remember  when  St.  Thomas  Church  was 
opened,  seeing  Dr.  Vermilye  advance  to  the  Chancel  rail  to 
receive  the  Holy  Communion,  and  no  one  who  recalls  that 
scene  will  forget  the  tender  eagerness  with  which  the  late 
Bishop  of  New  York  at  once  came  forward  to  claim  for  him- 
self the  privilege  of  administering  to  his  cherished  and  life- 
long friend.  My  own  friendship  is  thus  a  sacred  inherit- 
ance. All  honor  to  him,  "  Clarum  et  venerabile  nomen,'' 
whom  all  who  know  and  love  him  would  delight  to-night  to 
greet.  In  behalf  of  those  of  them  who  are  absent  I  send 
this  message  of  grateful  homage  and  regard. 

"  And  I  am  dear  Dr.  Chambers, 

"  Very  Faithfully  yours, 

"  H.  C.  Potter." 

The  Chairman  Continued — 

We  are  fortunate  to  have  the  presence  of  him  to  whom  Dr.  Dix  refers  as 
his  "young  friend  and  brother"  the  Rev.  Richard  D.  Harlan,  who 
is  now  the  minister  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  New  York, 
the  oldest  of  that  honored  name  in  this  city  ;  and  he  will  speak 
to  us  on  the  present  occasion. 


FATHERS   AND   BRETHREN: 

AS  we  are  met  together  to  offer  our  thanksgiving  to  the 
Head  of  the  Church  for  the  fifty  years'  service  which 
this  reverend  father  in  God  has  been  permitted  to 
give  to  one  branch  of  the  Catholic  Church,  and  to  bring  our 
heartfelt  congratulations  to  him  upon  the  advent  of  this 
jubilee  year,  I  think  it  is  fitting  that  we  should  at  the  same 
time  be  reminded  of  the  great  age  of  that  historic  church 
of  which  he  is  so  honored  a  minister. 


32  COMMEMORATION    OF 

I  regret  exceedingly  that  Dr,  Dix  is  not  present  this 
evening.  Were  he  here,  I  know  that  he  would  join  with 
me,  as  the  representatives  of  our  respective  denominations, 
in  admitting  that,  in  comparison  with  the  Reformed  Church 
on  Manhattan  Island,  we  Episcopalians  and  Presbyterians 
are  all  of  us  schismatics.  The  facts  are  these :  the  sturdy 
Dutch  forefathers  planted  their  first,  this  Collegiate  Church, 
within  the  town  of  New  Amsterdam  in  the  year  of  Our  Lord 
1628 ;  old  Trinity  was  not  founded  until  sixty-six  years  after- 
ward, in  1696,  while  the  church  of  which  I  have  the  honor  to 
be  the  minister,  is  by  eighty-three  years  the  junior  of  the  Col- 
legiate Church,  not  being  organized  until  171 1.  So  that  we 
may  as  well  frankly  admit  to  you,  our  brethren  of  the  Dutch 
Church,  that  you  are  the  Established  Church  of  New  York, 
while  Dr.  Dix  and  I,  together  with  all  our  colleagues  of  the 
Presbyterian  and  Episcopal  order,  are  dissenters.  Therefore. 
in  bringing  our  congratulations  to  this  reverend  bishop  of  so 
ancient  a  church,  fairly  hoary  with  age  for  our  youthful  re- 
public, we  feel  (and  I  speak  for  Dr.  Dix  as  well  as  myself),  as  if 
we  ought  to  offer  some  kind  of  an  apology  for  this  high-handed 
act  of  what  we  Churchmen  know  as  territorial  schism. 
However,  I  am  sure  that  our  reverend  father  will  not  ask 
for  such  an  apology ;  for  he  knows  well  that  there  is  room 
and  to  spare,  for  all  of  us,  each  to  do  our  own  God-given 
and  peculiar  work  in  this  many  sided  population.  If  I  may 
be  permitted  to  use  a  phrase  which  is  no  longer  correct  or 
descriptive,  I  would  say  that  we  aim  not  to  make  Dutch- 
men, nor  Episcopalians,  nor  even  Presbyterians,  but  to 
make  Christians,  to  enroll  at  our  respective  recruiting  sta- 
tions, volunteers  for  life-long  service  as  soldiers  of  Jesus 
Christ.  In  a  spirit  of  generous  emulation  which  does 
not  run  into  petty  sectarian  rivalry,  in  a  spirit  of  mutual 
and  proper  preference  each  for  his  own  church,  which  does 
not  exalt  or  rather  contract  itself  into  exclusiveness,  we 
labor  side  by  side  in  this  great  metropolis,  which  so  throbs 
with  life  and  teems  with  problems.  We  feel  the  bondage 
of  the  same  sin  ;  we  are  heralds  of  the  same  glad  tidings 
of  God's  love  to  men ;  we  are  children  of  the  one  common 


FIFTY   YEARS'   SERVICE  33 

Father :  we  love  and  serve  the  one  Great  Redeemer ;  we 
cling  to  the  same  cross  ;  we  point  the  weary  feet  of  men  to 
the  same  Heavenly  Father's  house.  I  once  heard  an  aged 
saint  say  that  we  Christians  are  very  much  like  the  spokes 
of  a  wheel,  the  nearer  we  get  to  the  centre  the  nearer  we 
come  to  one  another.  And  I  think  it  is  one  of  the  jubilant 
signs  of  the  times,  a  sign  which  is  most  vividly  recalled  to 
us  on  such  an  occasion  as  this,  with  its  many  catholic 
features,  to  observe  the  way  in  which  all  who  profess  and 
call  themselves  Christians  are  hastening  toward  the  day 
when  we  shall  all  live  together  in  the  unity  of  the  Spirit,  in 
the  bond  of  peace,  and  in  righteousness  of  life. 

And  as  I  am  on  the  edge  of  this  burning  question  which 
throbs  at  the  heart  of  all  Christendom,  one  fact  occurs 
to  me  which  it  gives  me  peculiar  pleasure  as  a  minister  of 
the  Presbyterian  order,  to  give  utterance  to,  an  incident 
which  I  believe  has  not  yet  been  noticed,  and  which  for  the 
very  reason  that  it  has  been  forgotten  or  lost  sight  of  as  a 
matter  of  no  vital  importance  (and  it  certainly  is  not  re- 
membered with  any  unchristian  or  jealous  feeling  on  the 
part  of  the  church  that  I  represent),  shows  how  low  the 
walls  are  between  us  and  how  we  pass  and  re-pass  without 
friction.  I  refer  to  the  fact  that  Dr.  Vermilye  was  reared  as 
a  Presbyterian  and  was  first  ordained  as  a  minister  of  that 
body  ;  but  early  in  his  career,  finding  that  he  could  serve  his 
Divine  Master  better  in  the  communion  of  the  Reformed 
Church,  transferred  his  membership  to  you  and  was  enrolled 
as  a  minister  of  the  Classis  of  Albany.  As  a  matter  of 
history  I  understand  that  he  is  the  oldest  living  licentiate 
of  the  New  York  Presbytery.  We  reared  and  trained  him  for 
you,  and  these  fifty  years  of  faithful  service  are  a  sufficient 
proof  of  the  soundness  and  efficient  thoroughness  of  that 
training.  Therefore  we  Presbyterians  claim  a  peculiar 
right  to  participate  in  these  ceremonies,  and  we  take  a 
peculiar  pleasure  in  bringing  our  congratulations  upon  this 
auspicious  semi-centennial  occasion. 

I  need  not  refer  at  length  to  Dr.  Vermilye's  services  in 
the  Board  of  Trustees  of   the  Leake   and  Watts   Orphan 


34  COMMEMORATION     OF 

House ;  that  has  been  already  touched  upon  by  my 
colleague  Dr.  Dix.  For  three  and  a  half  years  during  my 
ministry  in  New  York,  by  reason  of  my  official  association 
with  the  Senior  Minister  of  the  Collegiate  Church  in  the 
management  of  that  beautiful  charity,  I  have  had  the 
privilege  of  knowing  Dr.  Vermilye  personally  ;  and  very 
vivid  to  the  memory  will  always  be  the  picture  of  him  as  he 
participated  in  the  meetings  of  the  Board  or  was  an 
interested  spectator  of  the  children's  performances  at  the 
annual  commencements  at  the  Orphan  House — his  face 
beaming  with  placid  benignity,  writ  in  large  fair  characters 
in  every  lineament  of  his  countenance,  his  very  presence  a 
benediction.  May  that  presence  remain  with  us  and  with 
you,  many  years  :  and  may  the  Lord  lift  up  the  light  of  His 
countenance  upon  him,  and  give  him  His  everlasting  peace, 
until  that  day  when  he  shall  be  gathered  as  a  full  shock  of 
corn  into  the  heavenly  garner. 

The  Chairman  then  said  : — Before  we  sing,  as  marked  on  the  pro- 
gramme, I  will  call  the  attention  of  the  congregation  to  the  beautiful 
basket  of  flowers  on  my  right  hand,  which  comes  from  the  trustees 
and  officers  and  children  of  the  Leake,  and  Watts  Orphan  House,  in 
testimony  of  their  respect  and  affection  for  one  who  has  served  them 
so  long  and  so  faithfully. 

The  Magnificat  in  A.  (J.  Stainer)  was  then  sung,  after  which  the 
Chairman  said  :  I  have  the  pleasure  of  introducing  to  the  audience 
Hon.  Enoch  L.  Fancher,  President  of  The  American  Bible  Soci- 
ety, who  on  this  occasion  will  represent  not  only  that  great  national 
institution,  of  which  he  is  the  honored  President,  but  that  eminent 
body  of  active  and  enterprising  Christians  known  as  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church. 

€^t  (^iinse  of  t^i  l^on*  <Bnoc^  £♦ 

I  ESTEEM  it  a  privilege  to  be  present  on  this  occasion 
of  joyful  congratulation  to  a  distinguished  servant  of 
the  Church,  and  to  bring  to  him  the  felicitations  of 
the  officers  and  managers  of  the  American  Bible  Society. 


FIFTY   YEARS     SERVICE 


35 


We  certainly  must  all  believe  that  it  is  a  high  distinction 
[to  have  attained  the  completion  of  such  service  as  he  has 
[performed  for  the  last   fifty  years.     Now,  v^eighted   with 
honor,  surrounded  by  admiring  friends,  and  blessed  with  the 
memories  of  so  long  a  service  as  fifty  years,  he  certainly  must 
[look  back  upon  his  pathway  with    gratitude  to  God  and 
[with  gladness  of  heart.     He  occupies  a  permanent  place  in 
the  high  regard  of  his  church  and  of  this  community.    His 
associate  pastors  and  many  other  Christian   ministers  and 
friends,  friends  in  the  laity  as  well,  rejoice  to  honor  him  and 
Ito  proffer  him  their  congratulations.     Among  those  rejoic- 
fing  friends,  the  officers  and  managers  of  the  American  Bible 
[Society  are  glad  to  appear.     They  do  not  forget  that  Dr. 
jVermilye,  before  he  was  called  to  the  sacred  ministry,  while 
ret,  I  believe,  a  student  of  law,  was  a  witness  to  the  forma- 
tion of  the  American  Bible  Society  in  one  of  the  rooms  of 
the  City  Hall  of  this  City.     And  since  his  consecration  to 
the  sacred  ministry  he  has  been  an  efficient  advocate  of  its 
:ause  ;  for  a  long,  long  time,  a  member  of  its  most  important 
'ommittee,  on  "  Revision,"  during  which  time  the  labori- 
)us  work  was  performed  of  preparing  a  revised  edition  of 
the  sacred  book ;  and  since  that  time  he  has  rendered  effi- 
:ient  aid  to  the  Society  in  the  deliberations  of  its  Board  of 
[anagers.     The  records  of  eternity  must  be  unrolled  be- 
fore it  can  be  known  how  many,  how  very  many,  souls  have 
>een  lighted  by  the  wisdom  of  the   Divine  Word  through 
ie  instrumentality  of  the  honored  guest  of  this  evening, 
bring  from  the  American  Bible  Society  its  chaplet  of  ac- 
mowledgment  and  honor,  to  place  lovingly  upon  the  brow 
)f  so  distinguished  a  champion  of  its  cause  ;  and  it  does 
lot  need  the  partiality  of  personal  acquaintance  to  convey 
lis  wreath  with  the  loftiest  encomium  for  Dr.  Vermilye's 
irvices  as  a  friend  of  every  good  cause  in  this  City,  and  as  a 
iristian  minister  his  history  is  perfectly  familiar  to  all  of 
His   associates   of   the  Collegiate  Church,  and    many 
[Ihristian  brethren  both  of  the  clergy  and  laity,  proclaim  his 
iraise  ;  while  the  record  of  his  fifty  years'  pastoral  work  in 


36  COMMEMORATION     OF 

one  of  the  noblest  church  organizations  in  New  York  adds 
lustre  to  his  name. 

What  affectionate  interests  gather  around  the  commem- 
oration of  this  event !  A  saintly  minister,  a  faithful  pastor, 
a  popular  preacher,  and  sound  theologian,  of  whose  good- 
ness and  qualifications  his  lengthened  service  and  his  en- 
deared relations  to  his  church,  to  the  Bible  and  other  benev- 
olent causes,  testify,  and  who  has  been  for  so  many  years 
recognized  as  a  peer  among  that  brilliant  galaxy  of  Chris- 
tian ministers  of  the  Reformed  Dutch  Church  of  America, 
receives  to-night  the  acclamations  and  the  plaudits  of  his 
brethren  and  friends  as  he  completes  the  half  century  of  his 
blessed  work.  It  is  certainly  but  the  performance  of  a 
proper,  as  well  as  a  pleasant  duty,  to  hail  him  as  the  suc- 
cessful champion  and  to  lift  the  acclaim,  "  Servant  of  God, 
well  done!  " 

Several  of  the  temples  in  which  he  has  ministered  stand 
as  bulwarks  strong,  their  spires  pointing  to  the  skies  :  but 
they  are  not  more  conspicuous  nor  permanent  than  the  un- 
dying influence  of  the  work  of  him  whom  we  are  met  to 
honor. 

In  our  busy  City,  where  human  lives  for  a  large  part  are 
mingled  with  hopes  disappointed  and  aims  unattained,  and 
when  the  best  endeavors  are  defeated  by  a  thousand  mischan- 
ces, it  seems  more  like  a  fancied  fable  than  a  real  fact,  that  one 
who  while  connected  with  a  single  church  organization  has 
attained  the  "  consummation  so  devoutly  to  be  wished,"  as 
a  completion  of  a  half  century  of  efficient  work,  uninter- 
rupted by  any  lapse  or  disappointment  ;  and  in  contem- 
plating such  success  we  must  believe  that  some  native  force 
of  character,  some  peculiar  cultivation  of  temperament, 
some  unusual  physical  and  intellectual  endowments,  and 
some  singular  impartation  of  divine  grace  have  contributed 
to  the  felicitous  result. 

And  how  is  the  coveted  grandeur  of  mere  wordly  dis- 
tinctions rebuked  and  brought  into  littleness  as  we  con- 
template such  a  useful  and  well-spent  service  of  fifty  years! 
Such  a  long  term  of  benevolent  usefulness  has  a  vibration 


FIFTY   YEARS'    SERVICE 


37 


beyond  the  limits  of  the  church  and  congregations  in 

jich  it  was  rendered,  for  its  widening  circles  reach  the 

imunity  at  large  and  its  influence  does  not  terminate 

its  end ;  it  rolls  on  like  a  tide  without  an  ebb. 
[I  would  avoid  any  officious  familiarity  toward  one  of  so 
a  position   and    high    attainments  as   those   of   Dr. 
lilye,   and  yet   I  am  constrained  for  one  moment  to 
to  some  incidents  relating  to  his  early  appearance  in 
pulpits  of  the  Collegiate  Church.      About  the  time  that 
iras  called  as  an  associate  pastor  of  the  Collegiate  Church, 
le  to  the  City  of  New  York  and  entered  upon  the  study 
le  law.     Being  a  stranger  here,  I  inquired  where  I  might 
the  great  preachers,  I  was  directed  to  a  church, — the 
th  Dutch  Church  I  think  it  was  called, — situate  on  the 
ler  of  Fulton  and  William  Streets.     And  going  there,  I 
sermons,  several  of  them  from  those  masters  of  pulpit 
)ry  and  power,  the  Rev.   Drs.  Brownlee  and  DeWitt. 
former  preached  some  sermons  in  which  he  assailed 
;  infidel  literature  of  the  time,  with  strong  argument  and 
:tive :  and  the  latter  rolled  along  like  a  hero  in  his  tri- 
>hal  chariot,  an  adept  in   theology  and  pulpit    power, 
of  those  great  men  were  celebrities  in  their  day  and 
well  considered  God-anointed  kings  of  thought.     And 
I  heard  that  an  associate  pastor  had  been  called  to  the 
it  of  the  Collegiate  Church,   I  formed  an  idea — a  mis- 
idea  it  was — that  he  would  fall  below  the  high  standard 
)pularity  raised  by  his  predecessors.     But  when  I  had 
the  new  preacher,  to  whom  so  many  young  persons 
at  that  time  attracted,  I  saw  that  he  held  no  second 
in  the  estimation  of  his  auditors  nor  in  the  power  of  his 
ion  as  a  colleague  and  peer  among  princes  of  the  pulpit, 
predecessors  were  a  Paul  in  argument  and  a  Cephas  in 
;r,  he  seemed  to  be  an  Apollos  of  finished  utterance, 
every  delicacy  of  speech  and  grace  of  harmony  was 
impressive  by  a  voice  of  silver  tone  and  a  countenance 
beamed  like  a  benediction 

lere  hung  against  the  upper  ceiling  high  over  the  pul- 
[an  escutcheon  with  the    device  "  Dando    Conservat," 


38  COMMEMORATION     OF 

which  to  my  youthful  sense  at  first  seemed  very  paradoxical, 
for  I  thought  how  can  one  save  by  giving?  The  device,  no 
doubt,  had  reference  to  the  benevolent  donor  of  property  to 
the  church  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  it  is  quite  appropriate  to 
borrow  its  sentiment  for  this  occasion. 

Here  present  with  us  is  one  who  has  for  fifty  years 
given  his  time,  his  talents,  his  pastoral  and  benevolent  labor, 
and,  so  to  speak,  his  all,  for  the  advancement  of  the  Bible 
cause  and  of  every  other  good  cause,  and  for  the  further- 
ance of  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  Blessed  God.  And  must 
we  not  say  "  conservat,"  "  He  saves  "  ?  Saves  the  happy 
memories  of  many  useful  years,  the  serene  satisfaction  of 
labors  well  bestowed,  the  admiring  appreciation  of 
cordial  friends,  and  the  blissful  hope  of  future  good,  a  hope 
all  intense  and  bright  with  the  forevisions  of  the  blessed 
Land.  No  life  has  a  grander  history  than  that  of  such  a 
Christian  minister:  he  has  been  teacher,  consoler  and  bene- 
factor. The  excellency  of  dignity  and  the  excellency  of 
honor  pertain  to  him  ;  he  has  feared  God  and  known  no 
other  fear,  and  by  precept  and  example  has  allured  to 
brighter  worlds  and  leads  the  way. 

Before  I  take  my  seat,  as  Dr.  Chambers  has  said,  I  rep- 
resent the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  as  well  as  the 
American  Bible  Society,  I  desire  to  offer  a  word  of  criti- 
cism on  something  that  fell  from  the  lips  of  our  esteemed 
friend,  Mr.  Harlan.  The  first  Church  that  was  organized  in 
this  country  was  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  :  and  that 
is  the  established  church,  if  you  must  go  back  to  the  history 
of  organization  to  find  a  definition  of  that  word.  * 


*  The  playful  reference  of  Judge  Fancher  was  to  the  fact  that  the  other  churches 
mentioned  had  been  organized  in  the  Colonial  period,  whereas  the  M.  E.  Church  had 
its  formal  beginning  just  after  the  States  became  a  nation. 

He  says  :  "  It  is  not  meant  by  this  that  other  churches  did  not  exist  here — the 
Dutch  Church  had  a  long  antecedent  existence.  Stevens,  Vol.  i,  p.  269,  says  in  his 
History:  American  Methodism  '  virtually  became  independent  at  the  breaking-out 
of  the '  (Revolutionary)  '  war,  and  the  Constitution  which  organized  it  into  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church  was  to  be  adopted  in  about  one  year  after  the  treaty 
of  peace  with  Great  Britain,  and  to  precede  the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Consti-' 
tution  by  about  five  years.  The  new  church  was  to  be  the  first  religious  body  of 
the  country  which  should  recognize  in  its  organic  law,  by  a  solemn  declaration  of 


FIFTY   YEARS     SERVICE  39 

The  Chairman  then  said  :  Before  announcing  the  last  speaker,  I  wish  to 
relate  an  incident  suggested  by  something  that  Judge  Fancher  has 
remarked.  About  five  and  twenty  years  ago  I  was  called  to  see  a 
man  in  middle  life  who  was  attacked  with  a  mortal  disease.  He  was 
not  a  confessed  disciple  of  Christ,  and  in  conversation  I  remember 
to  have  asked  him  if  he  had  any  doubts  about  the  Christian  religion 
or  any  scruples  respecting  the  divine  origin  of  the  Bible.  The 
answer  was  this : — "  I  had  them  once  but  on  a  certain  occasion  I 
heard  a  sermon  form  Dr.  Vermilye  on  the  purity  of  the  Bible,  and  I 
have  never  had  a  doubt  since."  This  sermon  was  one  of  a  series 
delivered  by  distinguished  ministers  of  our  City  at  the  request  of  the 
American  Bible  Society  in  commemoration  of  their  Jubilee,  which 
occurred  in  1866,  and  the  testimony  thus  given  is  I  think  indubitable 
and  clear,  to  the  convincing  force  and  persuasiveness  of  the  dis- 
course then  delivered. 

We  shall  now  be  addressed  by  Dr.  MERRILL  E.  Gates,  the  Presi- 
dent of  Rutgers  College,  who  will  come  to  us  not  only  as  represen- 
ting that  venerable  literary  institution  of  which  he  is  the  head,  but 
as  speaking  for  the  general  interests  of  sound  learning  and  a  liberal 
education,  of  which  my  venerable  colleague  was  always  an  earnest 
friend  and  advocate. 

@ibte00  of  {pUBxitnt   (Baf^0+ 

IT  is  with   especial  pleasure  that  I  bring  from   Rutgers 
College,  where  the  life-tide  of  strong  young  manhood 
flows  full  and  deep,  a  message  of  congratulation  to  the 
venerable  scholar  whose  ripe,  old  age  we  honor  to-night, 
since  1849  ^  trustee  of  that  College,  and  for  some  years  now, 
the  senior  member  of  its  Board  of  Trustees. 

I  have  often  felt,  my  friends,  and  never  more  deeply  than 
to-night,  that  we  need  in  our  church-life  a  form  of  religious 
festival  for  Christian  old  age,  that  shall  be  the  counterpart 
of  the  joyous  christening  we  give  our  children.  To  com- 
plete the  connected  view  of  our  '*  covenant  theology,"  as 
it  works  itself  out  in  the  history  of  a  Christian  life  on  the 
earth,  the  Church  needs  some  grateful  recognition  of  the  rip- 
ened graces  and  consummated  blessings  of  a  serene  Chris- 
its  Articles  of  Religion,  the  new  Republic ;  the  first  to  pay  hotaage,  in  the  persons 
of  its  chief  representatives,  its  first  bishops,  to  the  Supreme  Magistracy.'  " 


40  COMMEMORATION   OF 

tian  old  age.  And  it  might  be  well  at  times  to  make  this 
recognition  as  joyous  and  as  public  as  is  the  christening. 
Why  should  all  public  garnering  of  the  rich  lessons  from  a 
long  Christian  life,  be  confined  to  those  funeral  occasions 
when  the  perception  of  the  blessings  God  has  given  in  such 
a  life,  is  dimmed  and  chastened  by  the  sense  of  bereave- 
ment and  loss? 

The  wealth  of  hopes  that  centre  about  the  young  life,  as 
it  is  brought  into  God's  house  for  baptism,  and  by  the  par- 
ents' faith  has  its  infant  feet  set  in  the  pathway  of  cove- 
nanted mercies,  are  in  part  hopes  for  this  temporal  life,  and 
in  part  hopes  that  take  hold  on  eternity.  Often  in  God's 
dealing  with  us,  the  young  life  is  withdrawn  into  a  higher 
life,  before  these  hopes  for  usefulness  on  earth  have  reached 
fruition.  With  that  rich  prodigality  of  life  that  marks  its 
initial  stages  everywhere,  many  of  the  fairest  spring  blos- 
soms fall  before  the  fruit  is  set. 

But  when  the  life  on  this  earth  is  rounded  out  to  gener- 
ous completion  ;  when  the  dangers  that  beset  childhood,  the 
temptations  that  surround  youth,  the  burdens  that  are  laid 
on  mature  manhood,  and  the  storms  and  trials  that  beset  the 
way  through  all  the  allotted  three  score  years  and  ten,  are 
passed,  and  safely  and  triumphantly  passed  ;  when  the  ac- 
tive years  have  been  filled  with  usefulness,  with  broad 
scholarly  interests  and  practical  Christian  helpfulness  ;  when 
the  voyage  of  life  has  brought  one  to  the  serene,  placid  ex- 
panse of  an  evening-lake,  protected  from  storms,  and  lighted 
up  and  glorified  by  the  full  beams  from  a  western  sky  that 
opens  into  Heaven  ;  when  a  Christian  life  thus  blessed  has 
securely  reached  an  anniversary  as  significant  as  is  the  one 
we  commemorate  to-night,  we  do  well  to  observe  the  day 
with  especial  joy  and  Christian  cheerfulness.  And  our 
Dutch  Church,  always  tenderly  human-hearted  in  its  recog- 
nition of  the  individual  life  of  the  believer,  starting  in  its 
favorite  catechism  with  the  individual  believer's  "  only  com- 
fort in  life  and  death,"  and  in  its  liturgy  and  in  its  doctrines 
pulsing  with  the  heart-beats  of  a  human  life  touched  by  the 
divine  life  of  Christ,  is  led  most  naturally  to  come  to  God's 


FIFTY    YEARS     SERVICE  4I 

house  to-night,  to  render  grateful  recognition  to  a  Father 
Whose  hand  has  guided,  and  Whose  love  has  blessed  this 
long  and  honorable  life. 

It  is  a  spirit  too  circumspect  and  over-fearful  that 
breathes  in  the  shrewd  warning  "  call  no  man  happy  until 
death  is  passed."  For  Christians,  children  of  a  King  Who 
giveth  grace  and  strength,  there  is  a  fuller  confidence,  a 
more  rationally  hopeful  view  of  life.  While  we  reverently 
acknowledge  that  all  the  strength  and  grace  which  upholds 
men  among  temptations  from  within  and  without,  is  given 
from  God,  yet  we  have  such  entire  confidence  in  his  prom- 
ises that  we  dare  believe  that  His  grace  will  not  fail  one 
who  in  youth  accepted  its  "  covenanted  securities,"  who  has 
worked  in  its  strength  through  many  years,  and  who  now 
"  leans  upon  the  arm  of  his  Beloved,"  as  the  vital  forces  of 
the  body  fail,  and  leave  the  life  of  the  soul  more  engross- 
ingly  real.  Such  an  one  as  our  venerated  friend,  we  dare  to 
pronounce  most  happy,  even  before  the  last  chapter  of  his 
earthly  life  is  written.  For  death  cannot  touch  those  treas- 
ures of  experience  and  faith  that  the  aged  Christian  has  laid 
up,  there  where  his  heart  is ! 

And  there  is  a  precious  experience  of  Christian  faith 
which  we  do  well  to  cherish  and  rely  upon,  which  reminds 
us  all,  even  in  the  careless  years  of  youth  and  the  hurrying 
years  of  active  burden-bearing  in  later  life,  that  an  Eternal 
Omnipotent  Energy  is  pledged  to  carry  forward  the  work 
of  grace  in  every  life  that  is  "  born  of  God,  by  faith  in  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ."  Like  the  swell  of  the  eternal  sea-voice 
in  the  night-silences  to  all  dwellers  on  the  shore,  there  rolls 
in  upon  us  again  and  again  the  assuring  voice  of  Him  whose 
word  cannot  be  broken,  "This  is  the  will  of  God,  even  your 
sanctification."     And  what  can  defeat  His  holy  will? 

With  full  assurance,  then,  we  call  our  friend  most  happy, 
fiaxdptoz,  blessed,  whatever  else  life  may  have  in  store  for 
him. 

The  services  were  closed  with  the  Doxology,  after  which  a  benediction 
was  pronounced  by  the  Rev.  Roderick  Terry,  D.D.,  Pastor  of 
the  South  Reformed  Church. 


THE  following  appropriate  and  touching  discourse,  sug- 
gested by  the  Commemorative  Service,  was  delivered 
by  Doctor  Coe  in  the  Church  at  Fifth  Avenue  and 
Forty-eighth  Street,  on   Sunday   morning,   November    lo, 
1889,  and  is  here  appended  by  direction  of  the  Consistory. 


©n  (Btoxoing  ©£&♦ 

A   SERMON   BY   THE   REV.   EDWARD   B.   COE.   D.D. 

It  shall  come  to  pass  that  at  evening  time  there  shall  be  light. — Zechariah 
xiv.,  7. 

MANY  of  you  were  doubtless  present  at  the  service 
which  was  held  in  this  place  a  few  evenings  since, 
to  celebrate  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  installa- 
tion of  our  beloved  and  honored  senior  Pastor.  It  was  cer- 
tainly fitting  that  an  event  so  unusual  as  the  accomplishment 
of  a  pastorate  of  fifty  years'  duration  in  the  service  of  the 
same  church  and  of  a  career  of  over  sixty  years  in  the  min- 
istry of  the  Gospel  should  receive  this  public  and  grateful 
recognition.  The  service  was,  I  think,  worthy  of  the  occasion. 
It  was  a  peculiar  pleasure  to  us  who  worship  here  thus  to 
express  our  respect  and  afTection  for  the  dear  and  venerable 
man,  whose  benignant  and  beautiful  presence  we  always 
love  to  see  among  us.  The  words  that  were  spoken  by 
those  who  represented  other  branches  of  the  Church  and 
important  institutions  of  religion  and  philanthropy  were 
a  hearty  and  well  merited  tribute  to  one  of  so  catholic  a 
spirit  and  of  such  wide  and  varied  usefulness.  And  a  still 
more  impressive  and  memorable  tribute  was  paid  to  him 
by  the  presence  of  so  large  and  distinguished  a  company, 
representing  our  own  denomination  and  many  others, 
representing  various  institutions  and  organizations,  and  the 
Christian  public  of  this  and  other  cities,  uniting  in  a 
demonstration  of  respect  and  esteem  for  one  whose  long 
life  has  been  spent  in  the  service  of  God  and  of  his  fel- 
low-men. It  was  a  noble  and  in  all  respects  a  suitable 
ovation  to  our  honored  Father  and  Friend. 


46  COMMEMORATION   OF 

It  may  have  caught  the  attention  of  some  of  those  who 
were  then  present  that  the  words  which  I  have  read  as 
the  text  for  this  morning  were  quoted  in  two  of  the  ad- 
dresses that  were  made  on  that  occasion  :  "  At  evening 
time  there  shall  be  light."  They  seem  to  be  peculiarly 
appropriate  to  a  serene  Christian  old  age,  like  that  of 
which  we  then  had  before  us  so  striking  and  so  charming 
an  example.  And  now  it  is  of  such  an  old  age  and  the 
way  to  attain  it,  that  I  want  to  speak  this  morning,  and  I 
therefore  recall  again  to  your  minds  these  ancient  words 
which  are  so  beautifully  descriptive  of  it. 

It  is  true  that  in  the  connection  in  which  they  are  found 
they  have  nothing  to  do  with  old  age.  They  form  part  of 
a  highly  poetic  and  somewhat  obscure  prophecy  of  the  final 
deliverance  and  triumph  of  the  Church  of  God.  The  time 
will  come,  the  prophet  says,  when  the  people  of  God  shall 
no  longer  be  shut  up  in  Jerusalem,  but  the  Mount  of  Olives 
shall  be  cleft  in  twain,  half  of  it  shall  be  removed  toward 
the  north  and  half  toward  the  south,  and  through  it  shall  be 
opened  "  a  very  great  valley  "  by  which  they  shall  go  forth 
to  the  ends  of  the  earth;  two  perpetual  streams  of  living 
water  shall  flow  forth  from  the  Holy  City  toward  the  east  and 
the  west ;  the  whole  land  shall  be  leveled  that  the  mountain 
of  the  Lord's  house  may  be  exalted  ;  and  the  Lord  shall  be 
king  over  all  the  earth.  And  the  day  when  all  this  shall 
come  to  pass  shall  be  no  ordinary  day.  "  The  light  shall 
not  be  with  brightness  and  with  gloom  " — with  the  ordinary 
succession  of  morning  and  evening  ;  but  "  the  day  shall  be 
one''^ — unique  in  the  history  of  the  world  ;  "  which  is  known 
unto  the  Lord,"  and  to  Him  alone;  "not  day  and  not 
night,"  but  something  different  from  either ;  "  and  it  shall 
come  to  pass  that  at  evening  time,"  when  in  the  usual 
course  of  nature  darkness  should  set  in,  "  there  shall  be 
light."  In  this  ornate  and  splendid  imagery  the  prophet 
portrays  the  ultimate  triumph  of  Messiah's  Kingdom,  for 
which,  like  him,  we  still  hope  and  wait.  But  this  last  trait 
of  his  inspired  description  has  been  many  times  fulfilled  in 
the  personal  experience  of  God's  people,  as  well  as  in  the 


FIFTY    YEARS     SERVICE  47 

history  of  the  Church.  It  has  been  light  at  eventide.  At 
the  moment  when  it  seemed  as  if  overwhelming  disaster 
was  imminent,  and  the  end  of  all  things  was  near  at  hand, 
there  has  suddenly  come  unexpected  deliverance.  So  it  was 
with  Abraham,  when  the  altar  was  built,  and  the  fire  laid, 
and  the  knife  lifted  to  slay  his  son.  Not  till  then  did  God 
provide  the  lamb  for  a  burnt-offering.  So  it  was  with  his 
descendants  in  the  land  of  their  oppression,  deliverance 
coming  only  when  the  utmost  extremity  of  suffering  had 
been  reached,  so  that  the  saying  became  a  proverb,  "  When 
the  straw  fails  then  comes  Moses."  So  when  the  Lord 
knew  that  Lazarus  whom  He  loved  was  sick.  He  abode 
still  for  two  days  in  the  place  where  He  was  and  spent  two 
days  more  on  the  journey  to  Bethany,  that  by  a  transcen- 
dent and  conclusive  display  of  His  divine  power  He  might 
the  more  signally  exhibit  the  glory  of  God.  And  so  when 
Peter  lay  in  prison,  and  prayer  was  unceasingly  made  to 
God  for  him,  it  was  not  till  the  night  preceding  the  day 
appointed  for  his  execution  that  the  iron  gate  opened  before 
him  of  its  own  accord,  and  he  was  given  back  to  the  Church 
which  so  urgently  needed  him.  And  so  it  has  been  a  thou- 
sand times  in  the  history  of  the  Church  and  in  the  personal 
lives  of  those  who  compose  it.  When  hope  has  almost  died 
out,  deliverance  has  come.  When  the  enemies  of  the  faith 
have  seemed  about  to  triumph,  they  have  been  overthrown. 
When  some  great  calamity  has  been  impending,  it  has  been 
averted.  Prayer  has  been  answered  when  it  seemed  as  if 
it  could  not  be  answered,  and  when  the  night  was  closing 
in,  in  starless  gloom,  at  evening  time  there  has  been  light. 
Man's  extremity  has  been  God's  opportunity,  and  even  if  it 
is  not  strictly  true,  either  in  the  physical  or  in  the  spiritual 
world,  that  the  darkest  hour  is  that  which  immediately 
precedes  the  dawn,  it  is  certainly  true  that  it  is  often  God's 
way  sorely  to  test  the  faith  and  patience  of  his  people 
before  he  interposes  for  their  relief.  And  we  may  well 
pause  upon  this  fact  long  enough  to  gather  up  the  lessons 
of  meek  endurance  and  of  unfaltering  trust,  which  spring 
directly  from  the  prophet's  words.     It  is  never  too  late  for 


48  COMMEMORATION  OF 

God  to  exhibit  His  pity  and  His  power  in  answer  to 
prayer,  and  it  is  as  easy  for  Him  to  cause  the  light  to  shine 
out  again  from  the  gathering  darkness,  as  it  is  to  hold  the 
sun  suspended  on  His  word  in  the  noonday  sky. 

But  if  this  is  the  primary  meaning  of  the  passage,  it  re- 
ceives no  violence  from  that  natural  impulse  which  leads  us 
to  apply  it  to  what  we  so  often  call  the  evening  of   life 
when  the  shadows  lengthen  along  our  path,  and  the  hour 
draws  near  when  our  hands  must  be  folded  and  our  eyes 
closed  for  the  last  sleep.     No  man  can  tell,  of  course,  how 
long  his  life  is  to  be,  or  when  or  how  it  is  to  end.     It  may 
be  like  a  day  in  June,  when  the  sun  lingers  long  above  the 
horizon  and  seems  reluctant  to  disappear  behind  those  gates 
of    amethyst   and   gold,  which  finally  hide   him  from    our 
sight ;  when  a  rich  and  mellow  and  tranquil  light  fills  all 
the  air,  and  one  can  hardly  tell  when  the  invisible  Hne  is 
crossed  which  divides  day  from  night.     And  it  may  be  like 
a  December  day,  which  is  gone  almost  before  we  realize 
that  it  is  here,  when  the  sun   is    extinguished    before    it 
reaches  the  meridian,   or  sets  in  cold  and  stormy  clouds. 
There  may  be  no  long  and  luminous  twilight,  but  the  night 
comes  sharply  down  before  the  work  of  the  day  is  finished. 
And  then  there  are  lives  so  brief  that  we  cannot  compare 
them  to  a  day  at  all,  with  its  slow  approach,  its  steady  and 
even  march    of  hours,  and   its  gradual  and  orderly  close. 
They  are  rather  like  a  strain  of  exquisite  music,  or  like  the 
flash  of  a  bird's  wing  across  the  azure.     They  pass,  and  we 
awake,  and  lo!  it  was  a  dream  !     So  what  the  length  of  our 
life  shall  be  we  cannot  tell.     To  some  of  us  old  age  has 
already  come.     We  are  forced  to  confess  it.     The  keepers 
of  the  house  have  already  begun  to  tremble,  and  the  strong 
men  to  bow  themselves ;  the  grinders  have  almost  ceased 
because  they  be  few,  and  those  that  look  out  of  the  windows 
are  darkened ;  the  daughters  of  music   have  been  brought 
low,  the  almond  tree  is  in  blossom,  and  the  grasshopper  is  a 
burden,  and  desire  has  failed,  and  our  long  home  (or  rather 
our  eternal  house)  is  not  far  off.     By  signs  that  cannot  be 
mistaken,  old  age  has  marked  us  for  its  own.     There  are 


FIFTY   years'   service  49 

others,  who  feel  themselves  to  be  rapidly  approaching  that 
last  chapter  of  their  earthly  history;  and  others  still  who 
are  just  opening  the  mysterious  book  of  life,  and  who  find 
its  pages  throbbing  with  an  intense  and  passionate  interest. 
How  far  God  will  suffer  us  to  read  on  before  He  closes  the 
volume  for  us,  it  is  impossible  to  say.  But  whether  we 
realize  that  we  are  actually  growing  old,  or  only  know  that 
it  is  possible  that  we  too  may  one  day  be  aged  men  or 
women,  it  is  to  all  of  us  a  matter  of  importance  to  consider 
how  we  may  grow  old  beautifully. 

For  such  a  thing  there  certainly  is,  as  a  beautiful  old  age. 
The  evening  of  life  is  sometimes  the  loveliest  and  most 
blessed  part  of  life — when  the  heat  and  flurry  of  youth  is 
over,  when  the  strain  and  stress  of  middle  life  is  past,  and 
like  a  ship  that  has  made  its  voyage  successfully,  one  drops 
anchor  at  last  in  the  safe  and  sheltered  harbor.  Then  the 
violence  of  passion  is  subdued,  the  burden  of  care  and 
responsibility  and  labor  is  left  to  others  who  are  younger, 
the  eager  striving  for  that  which  is  beyond  gives  place 
to  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  that  which  is  already  gained, 
the  strained  and  care-worn  look  vanishes  from  the  face, 
which  now  shines  with  a  soft  and  tranquil  light,  and  the 
voice  which  was  once  imperious  and  commanding  is  sub- 
dued to  sweeter  tones  of  sympathy  and  love.  The  mind 
and  heart  are  both  at  peace — the  one  from  its  restless  ques- 
tionings and  the  other  from  its  eager  ambitions.  The  dis- 
cipline of  sorrow  has  borne  its  fruit  in  a  temper  of  humble 
and  trustful  submission  to  a  higher  will,  and  a  broader  and 
deeper  charity  has  come  with  its  heavenly  grace  upon  the 
positive  and  vehement  spirit.  That  is  certainly  a  beautiful 
old  age,  and  there  are  none  of  us,  probably,  who  have  not 
seen  examples  of  it  which  have  exerted  a  blessed  and  im- 
perishable influence  upon  us.  If  they  have  passed  from  our 
homes  to  the  home  above,  the  memory  of  them  is  among 
our  most  precious  possessions.  If  they  still  tarry  with  us, 
we  bless  God  for  them,  and  pray  that  He  will  spare,  as  long 
as  may  be,  to  us  and  to  our  children,  their  gentle  and 
gracious  presence. 


50  COMMEMORATION   OF 

But  such  is  not  always  the  character  of  old  age.  One 
sometimes  grows  narrower  as  he  grows  older — more  stern, 
exacting,  uncharitable,  selfish.  The  frank  generosity  of 
youth  is  changed  to  a  grasping  and  miserly  temper.  Mis- 
fortune and  disappointment  embitter  instead  of  chastening 
the  spirit.  The  decay  of  bodily  vigor  produces  restlessness 
and  discontent.  One  is  peevish  and  complaining  and  sus- 
picious and  jealous.  The  habit  of  command  is  not  willingly 
laid  aside,  though  the  judgment  may  have  lost  its  earlier 
vigor.  There  is  not  "  light  at  eventide,"  but  only  a  dull 
and  darkening  sky.  And  such  a  wearing  away  of  life  is  sad 
to  see.  There  are  cases  in  which  we  cannot  wonder  at  it. 
The  wonder  is  rather  that  it  is  not  more  frequent.  It  would 
seem  to  be  natural  that  long  years  of  trial,  and  the  knowl- 
edge that  all  must  soon  be  over,  would  depress  the  mind 
and  sour  the  temper  and  make  old  age  a  time  of  gloom. 
And  the  fact  that  it  is  so  often  not  that,  but  a  time  of 
serenity  and  cheerfulness,  of  "sweetness  and  light,"  seems 
to  imply  that  there  is  a  secret  of  growing  old  beautifully, 
which  is  well  worth  our  while  to  discover,  if  we  can. 

I  think  it  is  found,  in  the  first  place,  in  frankly  accepting 
old  age  when  it  comes.  I  freely  grant  that  this  is  not  easy. 
It  is  hard  to  admit  that  one's  work  in  the  world  is  nearly 
done.  It  is  hard  to  resign  to  others  the  places  of  honor 
and  of  influence  that  one  has  held  for  many  years.  It  is 
hard  to  accept  authority  where  one  has  long  been  used  to 
the  exercise  of  it,  and  to  see  younger  men  managing  affairs 
that  we  have  long  been  accustomed  to  direct.  It  is  not 
pleasant  to  realize  that  the  world  can  get  along  without  us, 
and  that  those  whom  we  have  perhaps  trained  to  their  work 
are  now  more  competent  to  carry  it  on  than  we  are  our- 
selves. It  is  not  easy  to  resign  the  admiration  and  defer- 
ence which  were  shown  to  us  when  we  were  in  the  full 
vigor  of  life,  or  agreeable  to  fancy  that  we  can  detect  a  cer- 
tain element  of  toleration  even  in  the  respectful  and  affec- 
tionate treatment  which  we  still  receive.  And,  of  course,  it 
is  not  pleasant  to  feel  the  consciousness  of  failing  powers 
of  body  or  mind,  to  see  the  beautiful  bloom  of  youth  fading 


FIFTY   YEARS'   SERVICE  51 

from  the  face,  and  to  discover  that  the  body  which  has  so 
long  been  our  servant  no  longer  promptly  obeys  the  still 
vigorous  will.  There  are  some  things  connected  with  the 
coming  on  of  old  age  which  no  one  can  perceive  without  a 
feeling  of  sadness. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  of  no  use  to  deny  any  fact 
— least  of  all,  the  fact  that  we  are  growing  old.  We  cannot 
alter  or  even  conceal  it,  and  it  is  worse  than  in  vain  to  struggle 
against  it.  There  are  few  things  sadder,  because  more  un- 
natural, than  for  one  to  try  to  keep  up  the  illusion  of  youth, 
when  youth  has  long  since  been  left  behind — to  pretend  to 
be  standing  on  the  hill-tops  of  life,  when  one  is  already  far 
down  its  western  slope.  The  light  that  brightens  the  even- 
ing time  is  not  that  of  gaudy  and  sputtering  tapers  or  even 
that  of  the  brilliant  electric  arc.  Neither  of  these  can  be 
for  a  moment  mistaken  for  the  soft  radiance  of  the  setting 
sun.  It  only  makes  the  closing  years  of  life  harder  to  bear 
and  robs  them  of  their  peculiar  charm,  to  fight  against  the 
order  of  nature  or  to  murmur  and  fret  because  the  tide  of 
time  is  bearing  us  on.  One  must,  first  of  all,  be  on  good 
terms  with  old  age,  if  he  hopes  to  make  it  beautiful. 

And  then  it  is  certainly  a  great  mistake  to  suppose  that 
the  work  of  life  is  done  when  one  has  grown  old.  Its  nature 
is  changed,  but  it  is  not  finished.  The  work  of  life  is  never 
done  till  life  itself  is  ended.  It  was  only  a  few  days  since 
that  an  aged  man  said  to  me — a  man  who,  with  his  wife,  is 
not  only  far  advanced  in  years,  but  has  lately  been  passing 
through  an  experience  of  great  distress :  "  I  sometimes 
wonder  why  God  spares  us  any  longer."  I  replied,  "  I 
know  perfectly  well  why  He  spares  you.  There  is  no  mys- 
tery about  that.  The  mystery  is  only  in  the  suffering  that 
He  has  seen  fit  to  send  upon  you.  But  He  keeps  you  here 
for  the  sake  of  the  rest  of  us ;  to  give  us  an  example  of  pa- 
tience and  cheerfulness  and  unwavering  Christian  faith." 
And  every  one  who  knows  him  would,  I  am  sure,  have  said 
just  the  same  thing.  I  often  wish  that  those  who  feel  that 
their  work  is  ended,  because  they  are  now  able  to  do  so  little, 
could  only  realize  how  much  they  are   doing  by  simply 


52  COMMEMORATION   OF 

being  what  they  are.  What  a  glory  and  grace  would  pass 
from  our  life  if  it  were  not  for  the  benignant  light  which 
shines  upon  it  from  their  lovely  and  serene  old  age  !  It  is 
even  doubtful  whether,  in  the  time  of  their  fullest  vigor 
and  activity,  they  were  able  to  do  so  much  as  they  are  now 
doing  for  the  Master  and  for  their  fellow-men. 

And  so  of  the  honor  and  affection  which  old  age  excites 
in  all  but  the  coarsest  and  most  vulgar  minds.  It  is  not,  of 
course,  precisely  the  same  which  manly  strength  and 
womanly  beauty  were  wont  to  command  in  earlier  years. 
But  there  is  less  of  selfishness  in  it,  and  more  of  deep  and 
genuine  homage.  It  may  be  confined  to  a  narrower  circle, 
but  it  is  none  the  less  precious  for  that.  The  silent  and 
loving  devotion  of  the  young  to  the  old,  which  adorns  so 
many  Christian  homes,  is  of  far  greater  value  than  the  ap- 
plause of  admiring  assemblies  or  the  crude  stare  of  gaping 
crowds. 

There  are  thus,  as  I  am  sure  you  will  all  admit,  some 
compensations  in  growing  old,  and  the  point  that  I  am  urg- 
ing is,  that  it  is  well  for  those  of  us  w^ho  have  reached,  or 
are  nearing,  that  period  of  life,  to  take  the  comfort  of 
thoughts  like  these  ;  to  count  up  their  gains  instead  of  fret- 
ting at  their  losses ;  and  not  to  make  the  limitations,  of 
which  they  are  becoming  conscious,  harder  to  bear  by 
struggling  against  them.  One  secret  of  a  beautiful  old  age 
is  the  frank  acceptance  of  it. 

Another  is  found  in  that  to  which  I  have  just  alluded 
— the  considerate  and  honoring  love  of  those  among  whom 
it  is  spent.  It  is,  of  course,  of  no  use  to  preach  about 
this  to  elderly  people.  They  know  more  about  it  than  I 
can  tell  them.  But  it  is  worth  while  to  remind  those  who 
are  young,  from  the  little  children  upward,  how  largely 
it  depends  on  them  to  make  bright  and  tranquil  the  even- 
ing of  life  for  those  whose  sun  is  near  its  setting.  I 
should  not  like  to  say  that  disrespect  to  the  aged  is  a  dis- 
tinctive trait  of  American  character,  for  that  would  be 
drawing  up  a  harsh  indictment  against  an  entire  people. 
But    one   can  hardly  deny  that   there    is    often  shown  by 


FIFTY   YEARS'  SERVICE  53 

our  jaunty  and  self-satisfied  young  men  and  young  wo- 
men a  contemptuous  disregard  of  the  opinions,  the  comfort 
and  the  rights  of  those  who  are  old,  which  is  a  blot  on 
our  manners  and  is  deserving  of  instant  and  stern  rebuke. 
A  more  unmistakable  sign  of  native  coarseness  and  sel- 
fishness can  scarcely  be  conceived,  and  it  disgraces  forever 
any  one  who  displays  it.  And  so,  on  the  other  hand, 
hardly  anything  is  more  beautiful  than  the  thoughtful  and 
affectionate  courtesy  and  devotion  which  it  is  often  in  the 
power  of  the  young  to  show  toward  the  aged.  It  has  its 
immediate  reward  in  the  grace  which  it  adds  to  old  age 
itself,  and  it  is  sure  to  be  among  the  things  which  it  will 
be  most  sweet  to  remember,  when  those  to  whom  it  has 
been  offered  have  passed  away.  That  must  be  a  sour  and 
crabbed  nature  which  does  not  respond  to  it,  as  an  aged 
tree  responds  in  every  shimmering  leaf  to  the  warming 
touch  of  the  summer  sun.  If  there  are  any  of  us  to  whom 
it  is  still  permitted  to  render  such  loving  ministries  to 
those  on  whose  heads  God  has  set  the  silver  crown  of 
years,  let  us  never  forget  that  the  light  which  cheers  the 
evening  of  life  is  partly  that  which  is  reflected  from  the 
loving  hearts  and  faces  of  those  on  whom  the  morning  sun 
is  shining  still. 

And  yet  it  is  not,  after  all,  so  much  an  outward  as  an 
inward  light  which  makes  old  age  serene  and  beautiful. 
And  that  must  come  in  great  measure  through  the  medium 
of  memory.  Old  age  lives,  largely,  in  the  past.  Not 
wholly  in  the  past,  if  it  is  to  retain  its  fresh  and  vigorous 
life.  One  of  the  things  which  contribute  most  to  this,  is 
to  keep  in  touch  (as  the  phrase  now  is)  with  the  actual 
on-going  life  of  the  world.  If  it  is  possible  to  cling  too 
long  to  the  outward  signs  of  youth,  it  is  possible  also  to  re- 
tire too  soon  and  too  completely  from  all  knowledge  of  and 
all  interest  in  the  things  in  which  one  can  no  longer  bear 
an  active  part.  This  is  the  way  to  grow  old  with  needless 
rapidity  and  to  bury  one's  self  before  one  is  dead.  It  is 
charming  to  see  in  an  aged  person  a  living  and  animated 
interest  in  that  which  is  taking   place   around   him   and  in 


54  COMMEMORATION   OF 

which  Others  are  actively  concerned.  It  shows  a  perennial 
youthfulness  of  spirit,  which  is  not  to  be  confounded  with 
a  fictitious  youthfulness  of  manner  or  of  dress. 

But,  after  all,  memory  plays  a  large  role  in  the  life  of  one 
who  has  come  to  old  age.  And  hence  it  is  that  if  any  man's 
old  age — yours  and  mine,  for  example — is  to  be  serene  and 
happy,  he  must  be  able  to  look  back  upon  a  life  that  has 
been  on  the  whole  well  spent.  It  is  not  necessary  that  it 
should  have  been  free  from  sorrow.  Few  long  lives  are  so, 
and  it  is  not  the  memory  of  even  great  sorrows  which 
brings  sadness  and  gloom  into  the  evening  of  life.  God 
kindly  permits  the  wounds  of  the  heart  to  heal  with  time, 
as  He  hides  the  gashes  and  fissures  that  His  storms  and 
earthquakes  make  in  the  surface  of  the  fields  with  a  thick 
and  delicate  net-work  of  grasses  and  flowers.  Nor  is  it 
necessary  that  one  should  be  able  to  recall  triumphant 
successes  and  heroic  exploits,  though  such  memories  un- 
doubtedly gladden  and  glorify  the  declining  days  of  one 
who  is  able  to  look  back  upon  them.  But  to  feel  that  one's 
life  has  been  altogether  a  failure,  that  he  has  wasted  his 
strength,  his  time,  his  opportunity,  that  he  has  lived  in  a 
wholly  selfish  and  sordid  way  and  has  done  little  or  nothing 
for  God  or  man — that  is  to  sit  down  at  eventide  with  the 
light  that  is  in  him  as  darkness  itself.  There  are  many  mo- 
tives by  which  we  are  prompted  to  right  and  earnest  living. 
That  which  I  now  urge  is  one  of  the  lowest.  But  it  is  at 
least  worth  while  to  remember,  that  however  it  may  be 
with  the  world  to  come,  there  is  prepared  for  many  men  a 
judgment-day  in  the  present  world,  and  they  themselves 
are  to  act  as  judges.  It  is  that  period  of  life,  when,  having 
finished  their  work,  they  look  back  upon  it  as  memory 
brings  it  before  their  view.  And  few  things  can  be  sadder 
than  to  see,  when  it  cannot  be  altered,  that  it  has  all  been 
in  vain.  If  you  want  your  last  days  to  be  beautiful,  make 
the  present  day  beautiful.  If  you  desire  to  be  able  to  look 
back  over  your  life  with  any  degree  of  satisfaction,  do  your 
work  well  as  you  go  along.  Tears  shed  by  and  by  will  not 
wash  out  failures  made  now.     When  you  are  old  and  gray- 


FIFTY   YEARS'   SERVICE  55 

headed  you  cannot  undo  what  you  are  doing  now.  A  life 
devoted  to  the  service  of  God  and  to  the  service  of  your 
fellow-men  out  of  love  to  God,  is  the  only  kind  of  life  which 
you  will  rejoice  to  recall,  when  you  stand  among  the  evening 
shadows.  Not  what  you  have  gained  or  what  you  have 
enjoyed,  but  what  you  have  done  or  have  not  done  will 
make  that  hour  bright  or  dark. 

And  yet  in  all  this  there  would  be  little  comfort  for  most 
of  us,  if  it  were  not  for  one  other  thing.  Who  of  us  has 
lived,  or  is  now  living,  such  a  life  that  he  can  look  back  upon 
it  with  much  satisfaction  ?  It  may  not  be  an  absolute  failure. 
It  may  not  be  wholly  selfish  or  worldly.  We  have  honestly 
desired,  and  honestly  tried,  to  do  our  duty  to  God  and  to 
our  fellow-men.  But  how  sadly  we  have  come  short 
of  our  duty  !  How  little  we  have  accomplished  !  Might 
we  not  almost  as  well  have  made  no  effort?  Oh,  that  we 
could  live  our  lives  over  again  !  There  is  little  to  cheer  us, 
little  to  brighten  our  eventide,  in  the  memory  of  opportun- 
ities neglected,  of  duties  left  undone,  of  privileges  unused, 
of  a  high  ideal  so  miserably  missed.  That  is  surely  a  very 
common  feeling  among  even  the  best  of  men,  as  they  look 
backward  over  their  earthly  lives.  And  so  I  must  add  that 
the  evening  of  life  will  be  full  of  self-reproach  and  bitter 
humiliation,  if  one  has  no  hope  in  the  forgiving  mercy  and 
grace  of  God.  It  will  not  perhaps  seem  to  you  a  fanciful 
figure,  if  I  say  that  the  light  of  memory  is  very  much  like 
that  of  the  electric  point.  It  is  very  brilliant  and  very  pene- 
trating, but  it  is  ill-diffused.  It  brings  out  certain  objects  with 
startling  distinctness,  but  it  leaves  others  in  profoundest 
shadow.  It  has  no  warmth  or  glow  whatever,  and  it  dazzles 
you  at  one  moment  and  the  next  moment  leaves  you  in  dark- 
ness. So  it  is  with  memory.  Better,  almost,  no  light  at  all  than 
its  flashing  and  misleading  ray !  No  ;  the  light  that  fills  the 
evening  of  life  with  a  soft  and  mellow  glory  is  that  sense 
of  God's  love  in  the  believing  soul,  which  enables  one  to 
recall  even  the  failures  and  sins  of  the  past  without  dismay, 
in  the  assurance  that  they  are  covered  by  that  infinite  grace 
which   was  manifested  in  Jesus  Christ.     There  is  nothing 


56  COMMEMORATION   OF 

else — no  outward  circumstance  of  love  or  of  honor,  no 
memory  of  brave  or  heroic  deeds — which  can  illumine  the 
soul,  as  it  draws  near  the  end  of  its  mortal  career,  like 
this  tranquilizing  and  uplifting  faith.  Men  may  be  calm 
and  cheerful  without  it,  dismissing  from  their  minds  what- 
ever disturbs  their  repose,  and  shutting  their  eyes  to  facts 
which  it  is  not  agreeable  to  face  ;  but  the  peace  which  passes 
the  world's  understanding,  and  which  the  world  can  neither 
give  nor  take  away,  belongs  only  to  one  whose  soul  rests 
upon  the  promises  of  God,  who  believes  that  his  errors  and 
sins  are  forgiven  him  for  the  sake  of  Christ's  sufferings  and 
death,  and  who  knows  himself  to  be  safe  in  the  strong  arms 
of  that  divine,  redeeming  love.  If  you  want  to  know  the 
secret  of  the  beautiful  serenity  which  you  have  sometimes 
seen  on  the  face  of  the  aged  Christian,  that  is  it.  He  knows 
the  love  of  Christ  which  passeth  knowledge. 

There  is  but  one  thing  more ;  what  else  can  there  be  ex- 
cept the  expectation  of  the  life  to  come?  The  earthly  life 
is  still  real  and  dear,  but  it  is  fading  away,  as  the  shores  of 
one's  native  land  sink  slowly  out  of  sight  as  his  ship  forges 
onward  into  the  open  sea.  But  one  who  knows  himself  to 
be  God's  child,  enfolded  in  the  Father's  love,  is  never  out 
of  sight  of  land.  He  can  discern  before  him  a  fairer  country, 
even  an  heavenly,  which  is  not  very  far  off,  and  to  which 
he  is  drawing  nearer  every  day.  It  has  been  growing  more 
real  to  him  year  by  year,  as  those  whom  he  has  loved  have 
gone  thither  before  him,  until  on  its  silent  and  shining  shore 
there  are  many  now  who  await  his  coming.  Sometimes 
it  seems  as  if  the  beauty  that  is  on  his  face  were  reflected 
from  that  which  our  dimmer  eyes  cannot  perceive ;  as  if 
the  light  which  brightens  the  close  of  his  earthly  day  shone 
on  him  out  of  the  open  and  waiting  heavens,  whose  golden 
threshold  his  feet  have  almost  touched.  However  it  be,  we 
know  that  it  is  the  vision  of  the  city  above  which  consoles 
and  inspires  him  as  he  moves  onward  toward  it,  and  by  and 
by  it  will  indeed  be  "  light  about  him,"  when  he  passes  out 
of  the  earthly  shadows  into  the  immortal  day. 

My  friends,  I  do  not  wish  to  exaggerate  anything,  but  I 


FIFTY   years'   service  57 

simply  say  that  there  is  not  now,  and  never  has  been,  a 
power  on  earth  which  could  give  to  old  age  such  a  heav- 
enly beauty  as  this,  but  the  gospel  of  Christ.  If  you  and 
I  accept  it  and  live  by  it,  it  will  matter  very  little  where, 
or  when,  or  how  we  may  end  our  days  ;  to  us  also  the 
words  of  the  promise  will  be  fulfilled,  that  "at  evening 
time  there  shall  be  light."     May  God  grant  it  to  us  all ! 


58  COMMEMORATION   OF 

The  Corporation  in  1839. 

ministers. 

The  Rev.  JOHN  Knox,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  WILLIAM  Craig  Brownlee,  D.D. 

The  Rev.  Thomas  De  Witt,  D.D. 

elders.  deacons. 

David  Board,  Theophilus  Anthony, 

Henry  Havens,  John  I.  Brower, 

Cornelius  Heyer,  Thomas  Graham, 

William  G.  Jones,  Charles  J.  Johnson, 

John  Neilson,  James  V.  H.  Lawrence, 

Samuel  Penny,  Caleb  F.  Lindsley, 

Isaac  Sebring,  James  Meyers, 

Cornelius  R.  Suydam,  Adrian  H.  Muller, 

Valentine  Vandewater,  James  Phyfe, 

Abraham  Van  Nest,  John  T.  Rusher, 

James  Ward,  James  Simmons, 

Noah  Wetmore,  Hiram  H.  Van  Vliet. 

officers. 

Cornelius  Bogert,  Clerk. 
Isaac  Young,   Treasurer, 

Office,   192  Broadway. 

Of  the  foregoing  there  are  at  present  only  two  survivors, 
Mr.  James  Simmons,  now  of  Paterson  New  Jersey,  and 
Mr.  James  Meyers,  now  of  Newburg,  N.  Y. 


FIFTY   YEARS'  SERVICE 


59 


The  Corporation  in  1889. 


MINISTERS. 


The  Rev.  Thomas  E.  Vermilye,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
The  Rev.  Talbot  W.  Chambers,  D.D.,  LL.D. 
The  Rev.  Edward  B.  Coe,  D.D. 


elders. 

Henry  VV.  Bookstaver, 
Robert  Buck, 
John  S.  Bussing, 
Peter  Donald, 
John  Graham, 
Frederic  R.  Hutton, 
Lewis  Johnston, 
Frederick  T.  Locke, 
Ebenezer  Monroe, 
Ralph  N.  Perlee, 
Henry  Talmage, 
Charles  H.  Woodruff, 


deacons. 

Gerard  Beekman, 
William  L.  Brower, 
William  C.  Giffing, 
William  P.  Glenney, 
Francis  T.  Laimbeer, 
Francis  T.  L.  Lane, 
Charles  Stewart  Phillips, 
Charles  A.  Runk, 
Charles  H.  Stitt, 
Cummings  H.  Tucker,  Jr., 
Joseph  Walker,  Jr., 
Frederick  F.  Woodward. 


officers. 

George  S.  Stitt,  Clerk. 
Theophilus  a.  BroUWER,  Treasurer, 

Office,  113  Fulton  street. 


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